My allegiances have always been towards TN: Balakrishna

Taking a cue from Kollywood stars like Suriya, Karthi, Vikram and Vishal, who have gone all out to promote their Telugu dubbed Tamil films in Hyderabad, Tollywood biggies like Mahesh Babu and Prabhas were in the city recently, to endorse their Tamil dubbed versions of Srimanthudu and Baahubali respectively. Now, yet another ace Telugu star Balakrishna, was in Chennai for the first time to promote the Tamil version of his Tollywood hit and his milestone 100th film, Gautamiputra Satakarni — and he floored everyone by making his entire speech in chaste Tamil!

For Balayya, as he is fondly called as, it was like a homecoming of sorts. “I am really happy to be in Chennai, as I was born and brought up here on Tamil soil only. I feel that my allegiances have always been towards this state,” he started his conversation.

For his 100th movie, Balayya said that he wanted to try out something new. “I listened to several scripts for my 100th venture. When director Krish narrated Gautamiputra Satakarni, the king who ruled us centuries ago, it was fascinating and I gave my nod immediately. As soon as I heard the script, three legends came to my mind — NTR, MGR and Sivaji Ganesan. After all, they have excelled in historical genres and without taking inspiration from them, I cannot do any film.”

In the movie, to mark his immense respect for his mother Gautami, the king prefixed his mother’s name and was called Gautamiputra Satakarni (son of Gautami). “Mother sentiment always works in any language and people can relate to this as it is based on our history. I feel I had my parents’ blessings to have worked in this film!” Balayya explained.

On his next venture, he said, “For my upcoming flick, directed by KS Ravikumar sir, I will be shooting for 40 days in Kumbakonam.” Karthi, KSR, Krish, and dialogue writer Marudhabharani were among the others present on the
occasion.