kantharao Posted April 5, 2009 Report Posted April 5, 2009 In the Bapu classic Manavoori Pandavulu, rebel star Krishnam Raju advises Konidela Siva Shankara Vara Prasad aka Chiranjeevi not to leave his village for greener pastures. ‘Unna ooru kanna thalli raa’, he sings. Krishnam Raju’s character brings together five youngsters to revolt against the feudal system represented by the evil village head played by Rao Gopal Rao. The story ends there and we don’t hear of the fate of the village after the evil headman is punished. In real life, one does not know what advice Krishnam Raju gave Chiranjeevi about their common native village Mogalturu, but the Megastar left his place of birth, never to look back. As Chiranjeevi set off on his election campaign in Mogalturu, villagers bemoan that he hardly ever visited his home town after leaving it for greener pastures in Madras and then Hyderabad. Mogalturu residents wonder that if Chiranjeevi did nothing for his village, what great things can the state expect from him should he ever become chief minister. They say Chiranjeevi who promises free education from KG to PG has never done anything even for the college where he studied. Chiranjeevi, who left Mogalturu in the late 1970s after completing his higher education to explore the film world, has visited his village extremely infrequently. Chiranjeevi completed B.Com. in 1976 from Y N Kalashala in Narsapur, some 7 km from Mogalturu. The management of the college recall that in 2000 they invited Chiranjeevi to attend the golden jubilee celebrations. They anticipated that he would render some financial assistance to the college. But Chiranjeevi did not even spare his time for the event. Incidentally, producer-director Dasari Narayana Rao and Krishnam Raju who too studied in Y N Kalashala attended the celebrations. Chiranjeevi also contrived not to donate any money to the Ande Bapanna and Brothers Cooperative Junior College in Mogalturu. The college, which was set up in 1988, wanted to upgrade itself to a degree college in 1994. The management proposed to name it after Chiranjeevi. College secretary Ande Bhujanga Rao made several rounds of Chiranjeevi’s residence in Hyderabad but it was months before he got an appointment. When he did, Chiranjeevi dilly-dallied on coughing up any help at all. Leave alone a donation, Chiranjeevi refused to stand guarantee when the management tried to raise a loan to get university recognition. Finally, a local resident Kotla Venkata Rangarao donated Rs 10 lakh and the college was named after him. In 2000, Krishnam Raju donated Rs 10 lakh when he was an MP under the MP Local Area Development Scheme, while his wife Sita Devi donated Rs 2 lakh. According to some villagers, a voluntary organization from Mogalturu requested Chiranjeevi to donate his old and dilapidated house to set up a public library. They told the Megastar that the library would be named after him. Chiranjeevi promised to do so but asked them to come back after a month. When they went back, Chiranjeevi had already sold the house. Here are the accounts of some Mogalturu villagers: Kadali Krishnamurthy: Chiranjeevi used to frequent my hotel to have tea.I wanted to meet him at his house when he visited Mogalturu after becoming an actor. But his people did not allow me inside. He never gave an audience to his fans. He promised to donate his house for a hospital. Leave alone donating the house, he sold the house. Pulakadam Venkateswara Rao, retired teacher: It is a fact that Chiranjeevi has done nothing for Mogalturu. I went to Hyderabad to meet him once, but he did not give me an audience. There were several teachers who taught Chiranjeevi, but I fail to understand why he keeps talking only about Osmani. Kukkala Mohan Rao, Chiranjeevi’s classmate: Chiranjeevi sold his properties in Mogalturu. He promised to construct a kalyana mandapam on his land. But he never fulfilled that promise. He has done nothing for Mogalturu. Koppula Satyanarayana, tailor: I used to stitch Chiranjeevi’s clothes. It is a fact that he has not little for Mogalturu. I wish he would visited his home town more frequently like Krishnam Raju. Andhe Bhujanga Rao, secretary of Ande Bapanna and Brothers Cooperative Junior College: Chiranjeevi claims to provide free education from KG to PG. It is all humbug. He did not help me when I needed financial assistance to run my college. Leave alone financial aid, he even refused to stand guarantee for loan we wanted to take. It is natural for the villagers to expect Chiranjeevi to do something for his home town. But he has always dashed such hopes. It was his fans who built a library after his name. They even built a kala vedika on the high school premises with donations. People here do not believe his words when he says he will provide free education. Stung by reports of his neglect of Mogalturu, Chiranjeevi responded to it during his campaign in East Godavari dirstict. His defence was surprisingly wweak: "One's village is like one's parents. Every parent would like his child to earn fame for him. They don't expect anything in return." The star said he had toured the streets of his village at midnight during this campaign, and said it gave him a thrill to be back in his place of birth.
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