Surya Tej is one of the heroes in R P Patnaik’s ‘Friendsbook’, who is the team leader among his friends. He entered the film industry as a lover boy in ‘Vinayakudu’ and was seen as an MP’s son in ‘Shambo Shiva Shambo’. He also won accolauds for his performance as Suhasini’s boyfriend in ‘Bhale Mogudu Bhale Pellam’. Now, in ‘Friendsbook’, he played a key role and earned the audience’s appreciation. On the eve of his birthday today he spoke to the media and shared his thoughts about his film career. Here are few excerpts:
Introducing himself Surya Tej said, “I was born in Rajampatnam in Srikakulam district but grew up in Hyderabad. My father is a high court lawyer. I’ve no support in the film industry. Initially my parents were against my joining films. Therefore I stayed away from them for 6 months. At the juncture I did a negative role in a Bhojpuri film. Later I joined the acting course in a film school where hero Surya was trained.”
When asked about his birthday resolution he said, “I’m a lazy man. So I wanted to get rid of laziness from this birthday. My next resolution is to improve my performance.”
When a journalist asked how he entered the Telugu film industry, he replied, “After I did Bhojpuri film, I got a call for ‘Happy Days’ auditions, but lost the opportunity. Later I managed to get an offer in ‘Vinayakudu’ through the assistant director Sai Kiran after which I did films like ‘Shambo Shiva Shambo’, ‘Cricket Girls’, ‘Ram Balram’, ‘Bhale Mogudu Bhale Pellam’. My role as Suhasini garu’s boyfriend in ‘Bhale Mogudu Bhale Pellam’ is unforgettable. I’m now receiving good support from my parents.”
About his character in Friendsbook he said, “I played a key role in ‘Friendsbook’. I was the team leader among my friends in ‘Friendsbook’ film which actually earned me good recognition and also good compliments. I was inspired by it when R P Patnaik garu narrated the story to me and felt that it would become a plus to my film career. R P Patnaik is a multi-talented director. All three films that he directed are different and two of them also won awards.”
When asked about his favourite character he said, “I would love to do any kind of character that’s challenging to perform irrespective of big or small. I love Kota Srinivas Rao’s performance. Chiranjeevi garu is my guru. Hence they both are my role models. I’m not in a hurry to do films. I believe in slow and steady wins the race policy. So I take my own time in choosing the films. Hence I did not hurry up after ‘Friendsbook’ got released.”
About his future projects he said, “I’m doing ‘Mugapusthakam’ in Tamil, which is the Tamil version of ‘Friendsbook’. This movie will be released shortly. Apart from that I’ve an offer in Kannada. I’m planning to approach the Telugu filmmakers only after the release of ‘Mugapusthakam’.”
He concluded saying the audience must remember him as a good actor than a star.
