TUESDAY | 24 JANUARY 2017 WHEN RIVALS TURN INTO ‘CLOSE FRIENDS’
Tollywood is replete with instances where some top actors openly criticise each other, only to become good friends later on
There are no permanent friends or foes in Tollywood. The thickest of friends can become enemies, and vice versa. Recently, actor Balakrishna had said that Chiranjeevi is his close friend even though the two once had a war of words.
The Simha actor had warned Chiranjeevi at an election meeting with his famous dialogue from his film — “Nuvvu okavaipe choosavu, rendo vaipu choopista, (You have seen only one side of me, I will show the other side too.” Chiranjeevi called Balakrishna’s comments ‘childish’ but after this spat, both stars didn’t meet for a long time.
But now, both the stars claim they are good friends. Chiranjeevi attended the launch of Balakrishna’s 100th film and Balakrishna also attended various events at Chiru’s house. “Once politics entered the film industry, rivalry also started but it never showed in their professional careers,” says filmmaker Tammareddy Bharadwaja.
Interestingly, Chiranjeevi was also involved in a battle with another actor, Mohan Babu. When the 75 years of Telugu Cinema was celebrated a few years ago, Mohan Babu sparked a fight by verbally attacking Chiranjeevi and rejecting and award given to h i m . Chiranjeevi also returned his award. For a few years, both the actors indirectly launched a war of words on each other but surprisingly, a few months ago, Chiranjeevi was the chief guest at a felicitation function for Mohan Babu, who completed 40 years in films. They hugged and said that they are close friends. Rivalries have existed in the past too, such as between N.T. Rama Rao (NTR) and Krishna, who made Alluri Seetharama Raju which NTR wanted to do. Though NTR announced the project, he didn’t take it up for years and Krishna announced that he would be making a film on the freedom fighter.
“Both actors didn’t meet face to face for many years. Much later, NTR decided to watch Krishna’s film and actually appreciated his role,” says a source. Interestingly, before this spat, Krishna produced a film titled Devudu Chesina Manushulu where NTR acted as the lead along with him.
Actors Akkineni Nageswara Rao (ANR) and NTR, too, had a rivalry going, even though they once called themselves ‘brothers’. But once NTR joined politics and came to power, he went against ANR and his studios. ANR went to court and won, but the rivalry continued.
Family feuds exist too. While Jr NTR talks about his uncle Balakrishna and his films on Twitter, the two have not met in recent years. The young actor is missing from most of the events happening at his uncle’s house. “Sometimes, actors open up about others at a public function or in front of the media, making it seem like the industry is divided and there is a huge rivalry between them. Though there is rivalry, the industry is united,” says Tammareddy.
However, this is not always the case. Balakrishna once got angry that his name and picture was not on the invitation card of Akkineni Nageswara Rao’s 75-year-old film career celebrations. From then on, he didn’t talk to ANR and didn’t even visit the family when the legendary actor passed away.
“It was a huge issue at the time and many friends of Balakrishna asked him to attend the funeral, but he refused to go. The spat between the two actors remained unresolved,” says a source.
Sometimes, actors open up about others at a public function... making it seem like the industry is divided — TAMMAREDDY BHARADWAJA, filmmaker