An event titled Yugapurushudu NTR Centenary Celebration and Memorial Awards was held in Hyderabad the other day. This was one of the several NTR centenary events held in the past few weeks. Senior artist Vishnu Boppana, an Executive Committee member of the Movie Artists Association and producer (at VB Entertainments), organized the event.
Veteran actors Kota Srinivasa Rao, Chandra Mohan, Prabha, Siva Krishna, Roja Ramani, Kavita, Tanikella Bharani, Babu Mohan, Kaikala Nageswara Rao, and a few others graced the occasion. 'RRR' writer Burra Sai Madhav was also present. Kommineni Venkateswara Rao, Gubba Suresh Kumar, and others were also feted on the occasion.
Dr. Garapati Lokeshwari, Nandamuri Mohanakrishna, Nandamuri Chaitanyakrishna, Garapati Srinivas, Nandamuri Yashwant, Maganti Kanta Rao (Retd. IG), Ambika Krishna, Tummala Prasannakumar, Ananthapuram Jagan, MAA's Executive Committee members, and others also participated in the event.
After the award was presented, Kota Srinivasa Rao said that the likes of NT Rama Rao, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Superstar Krishna, Sobhan Babu, and others never publicly spoke about how much remuneration they used to take home. "These days, though, heroes are talking about their fees publicly, saying they are charging Rs 2 Cr or Rs 6 Cr per day. This is not a good practice," Kota said. The senior actor also criticized the practice of looking at the age gap between onscreen actors. "Nobody commented on the age gap between NTR and Sridevi those days. People were only interested in the characters and performances," Kota opined.
The MAA association also came in for a mention. Kota urged the MAA President Vishnu Manchu to take up the issue of the welfare of poor artists more vigorously. Kota opined that big heroes are doing all Ads themselves, leaving no space for smaller names to make money by doing commercials.
