A Selfie For Mahesh Babu

Stardom comes with a swagger and a flashy persona in most actors. With Telugu superstar Mah­esh Babu, however, it comes in the subtle package of an unfl­appable smile, impeccable manners and muted fashion. Obliging a young fan with a mini photo session, Mahesh smiles and tells him, “I don’t like selfies either. I like proper photographs.” In an industry where stars painstakingly build larger-than-life images, Mahesh Babu brings his real-life humility to the screen. But then, the intensity of a Mah­esh Babu dialogue is something else altogether. It goes down smooth like a bottle of aged whiskey and the buzz stays.

Mahesh Babu is also the hit machine of Telugu cinema. His last two movies, Seethamma Vakitlo and Srimanthudu, were blockbusters. And now all his fans are waiting for the upcoming Brahmotsavam with Kajal Agarwal, which, going by the two-million-plus views the trailer released last week has got so far, promises box-office nirvana with its brew of family bonding, search for roots and a tuning into the simple joys of life. Quite ‘feelgood’ and striking a note very different from his last blockbuster in which he played a young man who goes back to his ancestral village, backward and crime-ridden, and takes it upon himself to make it better as the hero of the story. “Srimanthudu had a powerful message,” says Mahesh. “I am more at ease now than I was during its release.”

An actor’s success comes with its complement of flops and Mahesh’s scorecard too has had its lows. But those glitches don’t mar his appeal. The appeal of ‘Prince’, the eponymous protagonist of K. Raghavendra Rao’s  Raja Kumarudu (1999), the film in which Mahesh Babu the child actor, son of former superstar Krishna, became Mahesh Babu the hero. Fans still call him Prince.   

A few flops later, Krishna Vamsi’s Murari gave him what film pundits call “commercial success”. His career graph shot up with Gunasekhar’s Okkadu (2003)—co-starring Bhumika Chawla and later remade in Hindi as Tevar starring Arjun Kapoor. And in 2006 came Pokiri (remade as Wanted starring Salman Khan), when ended once and for all one glitch in his rising stock—that he was a bit gawky when it came to dancing or his wardrobe. Mahesh discovered a new hairstyle and a hitherto missing fashion quotient. Pokiri also gave us the most repeated Mahesh line: “Okasaari commit aithe, naa maata nenu vinanu” (“Ek bar jo maine commitment kar di, main apne aap ki bhi nahi sunta,” as Salman said it).   

Brahmotsavam is quite different, no action caper. “I shed tears when I dubbed for the climax,” says Mahesh. That scene was with Revathi, who plays his mother. Mahesh calls her a “natural actress” and she says he, a 40-year-old, could easily pass off as a college student. “We forget the small pleasures of life,” he says. “I stay away from complications and never carry any stress around. If I feel stressed, I go home and play with the kids. This helps, apart from eating right and staying fit.”

Maybe a decade into his marriage with model-turned-actress Namrata Shirodkar and being a ‘family man’ with two kids—Gautam and Sitara—has helped in keeping the stress at bay with a regular lifestyle. Namrata has surely drawn him out, for he is now more accessible to the media and his fans. Earlier, people used to think of him as somewhat unapproachable.

This ‘glasnost’ in Mahesh’s life has seen him indulge the media with a joke or two, and do ads for 16 brands (including Thumps Up). Instead of hangers-on, he has Namrata with him at all promotional events. Theirs is a story that goes back to the sets of Vamsi (2000) where they met. In five years, they were husband and wife. Mahesh’s father had initially opposed the marriage—the norm is to marry a younger girl and Namrata was slightly older—but gave in when his son didn’t relent. “I don’t really advise him. Mahesh was as disciplined earlier too,” says Namrata. “He is very clear in what he wants and is committed to it until the end. He is a director’s actor. Once they close a script with or without inputs from him, he totally surrenders himself to the director.”

And the directors are happy. Brah­motsavam is produced by Potluri V. Prasad of PCP Ventures. “Mahesh looks young because his mind is happy and his soul clean,” says Prasad about his friend of 16 years. “His stardom was not built in a day but step by step over 15 years.”

Pokiri director Puri Jagannadh says working with him is like “an addiction one can never get enough of and he delivers 10 times of what I expect as a director”.

With so much adulation, branching out into politics seems a natural course, one of the possibilities, especially down south. His father was in the Congress and his brother-in-law, Jayadev Galla, is a Telugu Desam MP. But, no, Mahesh won’t say yes. “I don’t understand politics and I don’t see myself in it now or later,” he insists. Then you point out his forays into social work, taking reel- into real-life, adopting a village like his character had done in Srimanthudu (that film with a “powerful message”).

But there are complaints of little progress made so far in the village, Siddapur in Mahabubnagar district, while he has app­arently adopted another one, his native village Burripalem. “It isn’t like that at all. Developing a village takes time. It’s a process,” he says defending himself. “When I take up something, I get involved personally. It does not happen in one go. I just visited Burripalam and I will visit Siddapur too, a few days after Brahmotsavam releases.”

Mahesh says his focus is on improving health and education in the villages and promises that the results will be visible in two years. “When my brother-in-law suggested that I adopt Burripalem, I thought it was a great move but I did not want to announce it then as it would have been seen as a publicity stunt,” he says. “So I waited a good six or seven months, until it hit the screens, and only then did we announce my initiative.”

As Brahmotsavam readies for release, all the paraphernalia that goes with a blockbuster—promotional activities, media interaction—is on display. The competition must surely be intense in an industry with so many top stars—Pawan Kalyan, Jr NTR, Prabhas, and more—and yet so much rides on Mahesh Babu. Does he feel the pressure before a big release? “Everybody has their own space in the market and there are no jealousies, though we are very competitive,” he says, explaining that things have changed and screen rivalries are a thing of the past.

As he gets up to leave, a fan approaches him asking for a selfie with him. Though he is not one for shooting through phones, Mahesh Babu poses for a selfie. 

***

Babu’s Blockbusters