Reigning heartthrob, soaring star or chip-off-the-old-block, call him what you wish. Ram Charan Tej is nonchalant about definitions. Vanaja Banagiri trails the facts behind the fantasy man who has given a new meaning to masculine mystique.
Circa: 1989
Location: Film Set, Hyderabad
Occasion: Interview with Chiranjeevi, MegastarCut to 2009
Location: Mahboob Studios, Mumbai
Occasion: Interview with Ram Charan Tej, a rising star
Life’s interesting. I was a rookie reporter then, just a few years into journalism, and I was excited as heaven. No surprises there. I was, after all, the chosen one to be invited to the megastar’s film set for an exclusive one-on-one. He had just been hailed as `bigger than Bachchan’ by a national magazine and was the highest paid Indian actor. Do I even need to mention, how awestruck I was? I still remember vividly walking into a bucolic set. And there he was, in flesh and blood, clad in traditional sort of clothes, doing what was his hallmark – dancing to the beats of a song intended to enkindle the audience. That all his songs and dances did just that intentionally or by default is besides the point. In between shots, as he walked towards me, my excitement was palpable. A bad actor that I am, he caught on and immediately said a few nice things about how glad he was to be interviewed by a lady journalist and how he had expected me to be a much older typical journo, so and so forth. His friendly banter devoid of starry airs put me at ease. Pronto. Chiranjeevi (Call me Chiru, he had insisted) was and still is all man and more importantly human in his interactions with people. That’s what has probably drawn him towards politics and away from his implacable stardom.
So why am I talking about Chiranjeevi when this one’s about his heir? I am coming to that. Amongst a hundred questions I had asked Chiru, back then, one of them was if he would expect his son (then four years old!) to walk in his footsteps. And he had replied, “Acting is a wonderful profession. I would have been a nobody if I hadn’t been an actor. My son is too young for me to say anything right now. But I have a feeling he may. Having said that, the choice will always be his.”
Twenty years hence, the four-year-old is two films old already! His raw, brooding, intense, honest persona, unlike anybody audiences had seen before, have clearly established him as a performer-par-excellence. And if you go by the box office performance of his last film, the others in the fray were pipped at the post by the emerging Numero Uno of the Telugu film industry. Let’s then welsome the latest heartthrob, superstar in the making , Ram Chran Tej. His name means the light at Lord Rama’s feet. His dad, an ardent devotee of Anjaneya, saw him as His blessing and named him thus.
Come March 27th and Charan will celebrate his 25th birthday. And I have a sense of revisiting nostalgia as I watch Charan getting it right for lensman Avinash Gowariker’s camera. Having greyed my hair in this profession, awe is a rare emotion now. But I definitely feel a sense of appreciation for the actor during my conversation with him.
I mention my conversation with Chiru to Charan and he smiles, all warmth at the mention of his dad. “That’s so true. He gave me total freedom. Until sixteen, I was clueless. Then one day, it came like a thunderbolt to me. And I asked myself why I shouldn’t choose acting. It would be tough, I had no doubts. But then the challenge would be in establishing an identity of my own. That would be a bigger challenge than fearing that I may never see the light in his shadow. Moreover, I didn’t have to struggle for a head start. That did it for me.”
His debut film, Chirutha may have been just a moderate hit but the second one, Magadheerais running to full houses till date after having shattered all box office records for more than 100 days. Must be a good feeling, hmmm... “You know, it’s strange. My dad kept telling me `Go celebrate. Enjoy your success,’ after Magadheera was declared a super hit. But I just couldn’t. I didn’t step out of my house for one whole month.” Why on earth? “To begin, though I knew it would do well, I didn’t expect it to be such a massive hit. Not even in my wildest dreams. That’s why, I didn’t want to get carried away and lose my head. It is possible to be misguided by people and that could have been disastrous especially at the beginning of my career. I needed time to see things for what they are. In the right perspective. I had to let the truth sink in.” What truth? “That it was the film that was a bigger success than me. That the film is a team effort. And that every film can’t be a Magadheera.”
