Kota Srinivasa Rao is well known to all Telugu people as one of the versatile actors who essayed various characters as villain, comedian and as a supporting actor. ‘Aha Naa Pellanta’, ‘Hello Brother’, ‘Vinodham’, ‘Rajendrudu Gajendrudu’ ‘Illalu Priyuralu’ are on the top of the list when it comes to Kota’s comedy performances. His performance in films like ‘Pratighatana’, ‘Chinna’, ‘Shatruvu’, ‘Ganesh’, ‘Gaayam’, ‘Govinda Govinda’, ‘Aa Naluguru’, ‘Pellaina Kothalo’, ‘Saamy’ (Tamil), ‘Dhookudu’, etc., are highly acclaimed. The actor has so far acted in more than 650 films including Tamil and Hindi. Today, Kota Srinivasa Rao is celebrating his 65th birthday. On this occasion Kota organised a press meet in Hyderabad.
Speaking to the media Kota Srinivasa Rao said, “In my film journey I did several roles that are memorable. All the credit goes to directors who created such wonderful characters for me. Usha Kiron Movies’ ‘Prathighatana’ was the turning point of my film career. I learned to mold and use some sort of variation on the characters I play by keenly observing politicians on TV channels. In olden days the characters of hero and villain used to be equally powerful and competitive. Hence the negative character is called antagonist. However, the villains today are not getting that recognition. In those days cinema existed far from the people. No one used to get the clue where shootings would take place and the whereabouts of actors. But today, cinema is on the street. The directors started asking for more retakes after the fear of film value has gone down. If we question them, their answer will be ‘This is digital world’. One scene is being shot in 10-15 different shots and we do not get any clue which of them would be included in the film. Telugu cinema industry is being dominated by outsiders. That doesn’t mean I’m against them. I too wanted to act with actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Nana Patekar. So I’m sad that such talented artists are not coming to our industry.” He concluded saying, “I’ve no idea of getting into direction. The dignity lies in if one does his own job.”
