Chiranjeevi is one of the few actors in Down South who is still ruling the Industry even though he is turning 65 years. The actor is busy with multiple films and always enjoying work even at this age too. Chiranjeevi is very joyful even at his home too and you will be surprised what his granddaughters call him. “I don’t know why they didn’t call me ‘thathagaru’, but they call me ‘Bhai’. They started calling me ‘bhai’ and I never stressed to them to call me ‘thathagaru’. But even I told them they started calling like this and I didn’t say anything,” reveals Chiranjeevi.
The actor is full of energy on the sets of ‘Acharya’ where he is shooting for a song along with actress Kajal Agarwal. When asked how he is still dancing like a young man, he says, “Whenever the music starts, my body parts automatically start shaking to that rhythm.” He added in a lighter vein that is his weakness too.
Like many other actors who are confined to their vanity vans when there is no shoot, Chiranjeevi is different. “Actually I don’t need a vanity can as I always sit outside and talk with people. I do my make-up at home and then I straightaway go to the action. In between the scene gaps, I never sit in my vanity van as I want to talk to people surrounding me,” he says. When asked that many of the other actors didn’t come out from their vanity van, he says, “I don’t know about it, but I always prefer to mingle with people whenever I get time.” He added in earlier days there were no vanity vans as everyone has to gather and get a chance to talk to each other. “It’s a healthy culture at that time which I continue and I am confident that slowly others also follow the same,” he says.
Chiranjeevi says that he wanted to direct K Raghavendra Rao. “Recently he turned as an actor after directing many actors in more than hundred films. So when he sent his look to me, I replied that I wanted to direct him. He then replied that he shivered to act under my direction. He made me shiver in the winter season that too in December month night time when he did shoot for me. So I told him that I wanted to take revenge, so I wanted to direct him for a film for an OTT,” says Chiranjeevi about his talk with K Raghavendra Rao in a lighter vein.
Didn’t he stress doing multiple films? “If I am not working, I feel stressed, so I need to work continuously. By this year's end, four films are going to be on the sets,” he says. He added ‘Acharya’ is almost complete and started the remake of ‘Lucifer’ and another two films with directors Meher Ramesh and Bobby (K S Ravindra) were also started.
Talking about opening theaters and whether crowds will come back to theaters to see films, he says, ‘One big film release can change everything’.