Chiranjeevi shares 'humiliating' experience from an event ; Says, ‘they dismissed other industries as regional language cinema'
Megastar Chiranjeevi during the pre-release event of Aacharya made some shocking revelations. Amidst the ongoing language debate in the country, Chiranjeevi too expressed about times when South Indian cinema’s contribution was not given more acknowledgment.
He recalled an event which made him feel ‘humiliating’; where he went to Delhi with Naga Babu to receive a National Award for his film Rudraveena.
The actor was displeased when he saw photos of Prithiviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, and so on on the walls depicting the grandeur of Indian cinema.
“And we thought they would also talk about South Indian cinema in such great detail. But they just showed a still image of MGR (M G Ramachandran) and Jayalalithaa dancing. They described it as South Indian cinema. And Prem Nazir, who played a hero in a record number of films in the history of Indian cinema, they showed his picture and that was it,” Mr. Chiranjeevi said as he got emotional.
“They were demigods to us. And there were no pictures of them. For me, it was humiliating. I felt very sad. They projected only Hindi cinema as Indian cinema. And they dismissed other industries as regional language cinema. They didn’t even bother to acknowledge its contribution,” he further added.
The Aacharya actor concluded his speech by praising films like Baahubali, Baahubali 2 and RRR for garnering the recognition pan-India.
