Rajini cheated me: Chiranjeevi

It seemed like a new constellation of sorts was evolving with Superstar Rajinikanth and Megastar Chiranjeevi along with veteran actor Mohan Babu coming together for an event in the city. What took many by surprise was Chiru venting his desire to do films again and the other eye-popper was the thawing animosity towards Mohan Babu.

Superstar Rajinikanth as usual stole the show with the ‘Thalaivar’ chanters going into raptures. The actor got emotional about the 2-year struggle for his upcoming film. Talking about his role, he said, “I thought Shankar (director) wanted me to play the villain’s role. I heard he was trying for Shah Rukh Khan. Just when I was wondering how to politely say no, he said he wanted me to be the hero and that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was the leading lady. I was shell shocked. ‘Is this a joke?’ I had asked him then, but now I realise that when you do a Shankar film you just have to be there and he’ll do the rest.” Chiranjeevi in his speech jovially mimicked Rajini saying, “You need not even carry your brains to the sets!”

Chiranjeevi applauded Shankar for his films from Bharateeyudu to Nayak to Aparichitudu for their strong social message. He said he was awestruck by Robot, touted to be the biggest budget film in Asia, which had the Oscar gang, sound engineer Resul Pookutty and AR Rahman, plus a host of A-line technicians both from India and abroad to breathe life into this film full of animatronics. Chiru said that it made him “jealous” that he couldn’t be a part of the film. “Rajini cheated me! He was the one who was supposed to get into politics first and here I am stuck up, while he is busy doing films!” He went on to add, “After entering politics when people used to ask me if I will do films again I always gave a vehement ‘no’. But now the actor in me has been provoked. I am aching to do films!”