“We can say the style of a particular hero by watching couple of his movies. We can also expect as what kind of movie he will do in future. But our King and handsome hero Nagarjuna is beyond everyone’s expectations. He shows diversity in every movie he does. He is a romantic hero for youth and has most female fan following compared to any other hero. He is King for mass audiences. And like patent to roles like Annamayya and Sri Ramadasu. So finally he is a versatile actor always interested and daring to do something new and different.

On his birthday this handsome Akkineni hero had a chat with us…

When it comes to birthday, it reminds us the past one year and things we did? How was your year?

Undoubtedly memorable. If I put my movies aside, my son’s movie ‘Ye Maaya Chesave’ has given me 100% satisfaction. I am happy that Naga Chaitanya has tasted his first success. Now he is busy working for couple of movies.

Its obvious that Akhil’s cricket performance in Tollywood T20 has made you fly in cloud nine, rite?

Ya it was fun filled moment for me. Everyone from the team has done very well. There is nothing special to mention about it. (Chuckling). But yes, I was very happy with Akhil’s performance. He is crazy about cricket and took special training for it.

It looks you are busy with four films this year?

Yes…my fourth movie would be ready for release till my next birthday. First ‘Gaganam’ will hit the screens. Later I am doing one movie under Veeru Potla’s direction and another one ‘Rajanna’ under the direction of Vijayendra Prasad. One with R.R.Movies banner and one multi-starrer bilingual with Tamil hero Ajith. So I am packed for this year.

You have been doing only one movie for year, why did you accelerate?

While I was doing only one movie for one year, it is taking more than a year to complete. Audience is getting bewildered and had to wait for my movie. On the other hand directors come to me saying that there are no dates of heroines. Then I had to wait. And suddenly one day the directors come and say that they’ve got dates of heroines and ask me to get ready for shooting. Everyone is behaving according to his or her own will. I did not like this. So I increased my number of movies in a year. Now everything is under control.

Tell us about your current projects.

'Gaganam' is a brand new thriller full of entertainment.The movie with Veeru Potla is a complete commercial film filled with action. And coming to ‘Rajanna’, it is fabulous script. The story is highly inspirational. S.S.Rajamouli would direct the action part of this film. And the movie with R.R.Movie Makers is highest budget film in my career. These four movies are completely different from one another.

No matter what kind of movies you do…audience still wants to see you as a romantic hero.

How is it possible? You can’t ask me to attend college holding some books in my hand. I accept only those roles, which justify my age. Then I will definitely romance happily.

We heard you are making ways towards Tamil film industry?

It is not a new thing happening. Basically I am fond of multi-starrer flicks. But there is no such atmosphere here. Meanwhile I have got Ajith’s movie and I couldn’t I resist doing it.

Why are we not making multi-starrer movies?

Well I am also unaware of the reason as why we are not making multi-starrer movies. I have been listening from media that there were no perfect scripts that could give scope to make multi-starrer flicks. Seriously, no actor has come forward to do a multi-starrer movie till date. If a couple of heroes come forward to do this kind of movies, and give their call sheets for a six months or one year, definitely there will be good stories coming.

Akkineni trio has agreed to do multi-starrer with Krishna Vamsi. Is it your passion for multi-starrer that made you to accept project?

You can take it in any way. But I believe that we are going to make a good movie. People often mistake that there will be fluctuations in the importance of the roles played by the heroes. There is nothing like that. We are going to act with my father. He never tolerate if there is any confusion in his role.

As a senior hero, how do you review the present Telugu cinema market?

Its in confusion. I never say that there are not good movies coming. A movie will be successful if you make it on only one particular hero. If you make the same kind of movie on another hero, it turns out to be a disaster. We feel it hard to run after the changing tastes of the present youth. 70% of the producers in our industry are not young. I guess it will take another 3 or 4 years for the situations to settle down.

You have been No.1 in supporting new talents. To what extent they are utilizing their opportunities?

Some are better utilizing, while some are making blunders. It is not their mistake. Basically the age is like that. They think that they are bosses for themselves. I too was same in my young age. I never used to obey my elders and seniors.

Do you think piracy alone is responsible for film industry’s downfall?

Not completely but yes there is lot of loss due to piracy. Piracy is not allowing audience to visit theatres more than one time. They prefer to watch it at home than in theatre. It is the reason we are releasing a movie with a huge number of prints. The movie is said to be successful if it gets huge collections in the first week of its release.

Producers are struggling to cut down the production costs. Do you think it is possible?

We must make it possible, if not there will be threat to our survival.If a reel of 10 minutes story goes waste, then there will be a loss of absolutely one crore. We have to have a perfect strategy before hitting locations i opine.