Mahesh Babu: 'Publicity Is Crucial For Success'

And when the film that is unconventional works at the box office and brings in accolades for the star and the entire unit, then it is a huge achievement for each and everyone associated with the film.

Srimanthudu is one such unique success story. The movie is everything that a quintessential star in Tollywood does not risk. But Mahesh took the risk and much to his delight, the film worked at the box office.

Of course, he has also turned a producer for the film and that has come as an additional bonus for the star who has been eagerly waiting for a huge hit after two duds.

Right now, he is promoting the film, interacting with media and all set to tour both the Telugu speaking states with the rest of the cast and crew including director Koratala Siva, co-stars Rajendra Prasad and Jagapathi Babu and producer Naveen.

Well, it does not come as a surprise that Mahesh considers Srimanthudu as his career’s best movie. In fact, he is happy that his father superstar Krishna has also congratulated him for doing a great job inthe film. 

Mahesh says the joy was doubled when his brother Ramesh came to his house with a bouquet to personally congratulate him. As for his two little kids, he says his son Gautam had gone to watch the film in the theatre, while his daughter Sitara apparently knows the lyrics of all the songs in the film.

Now, despite being the prince of Tollywood, Mahesh says it is a huge high as the film has given him the best results considering the risk he and the team had taken by refraining from any pre-release publicity. 

Though he says he is thankful to Koratala Siva, Mahesh says a simple thanks won’t be sufficient for a man who has made the unthinkable happen. He says going the low publicity way actually helped the film and added that his director too prefers low-key promotion to going all out and splashing advertisements all over the media channels both on and ooffline.

Mahesh says the film has satiated both the actor and the producer in him and he points out that Koratala’s script is probably the best example of a ‘flawless script’. He says that’s one of the main reasons behind the film’s success.

A special highlight of the film that was liked by his fans all over the world was the repetition of ‘panche kattu’. Mahesh says he stayed off that style after Pokiri as he did not see any reason to repeat it. However, in Srimanthudu, he says the script demanded it and it is a plus that his fans loved him all over again in panche kattu. 

He also discloses that for almost a week prior to the release, he was sleepless as he was going ahead on a never tried before path.

And like in the film, Mahesh has recently adopted a village Burripalem. Incidentally, Burripalem is the village his father and superstar Krishna hails from and Mahesh immediately took up the proposal made by his MP brother-in-law Jaydev Galla. 

However, Mahesh confesses that no work has been taken up in the village till date as he did not want people to misunderstand his intentions. Now that Srimanthudu has released and it is a big hit, Mahesh says he will implement some of his plans he has for his village.

Also part of the chat show was Koratala Siva, Rajendra Prasad and Jagapathi Babu who plays father to Mahesh in the film. While Siva confesses that he never had the time to check if his script was flawless or not, he says the film is proof that if the entire team and cast think on similar lines, then they will have a huge hit on hand.

He says it is common for people to go around on cycles and put their cycles on buses while going from one village to another village. He says he is happy and says he is enjoying the film’s success.

Rajendra Prasad said that apart from being totally involved in every aspect of the film, Mahesh has put in an extraordinary performance and that has worked in favour of the film. He reiterated that Srimanthudu has set a new trend in Telugu cinema and hoped that it will help the industry to experiment in future.

On the other hand, Jagapathi Babu shared that he is now being referred to as ‘rich daddy’ thanks to the way Koratala Siva had conceived and executed his role.

Finally, producer Naveen thanked one and all involved with the film and the audiences. Though he was involved with other productions, Srimanthudu was the memorable experience which he would cherish all his life said Naveen.

Though the team had kept a low-profile before the film’s release, cast and crew have been meeting fans and media and going about promoting the film in a big way once it was clear that the film was going to be a confirmed hit.