A star wife

Namrata Shirodkar Ghattamaneni, the wife of actor Mahesh Babu isn’t just another celebrity spouse. Not only is she a former Miss India and an actress, a loving wife and doting mother, but she also takes care of many social initiatives and charitable works of her husband.

Although she hasn’t been in the limelight after her marriage, she is known for helping her husband with his business and promotional activities of his ventures. She also looks over both the villages adopted by Mahesh. “It’s not about the limelight, work is more important to me,” says Namrata.

Namrata met the Ranga Reddy District collector Raghunandan Rao recently and handed over a cheque of '30 lakh through NATCO trust for constructing a school building in Siddhapuram. Their agenda for both the adopted villages is to develop the state of health, education and hygiene there. “The thought of this initiative came to us after MP Jayadev Galla garu, who is also my brother-in-law, suggested us to adopt Burripalem, in Andhra Pradesh. Consequently, we met KTR garu, who recommended that we adopt Siddhapuram, in Telangana. It is something we thought would be very interesting and challenging too. This is us doing our little something to the society,” says Namrata.

She states that they have had immense support from others to develop these villages. “We are really thankful to KTR garu, who was instrumental in raising the funds for the school building in Siddhapuram and for other social activities. Jayadev garu too has been hand-holding us. He has helped us a lot with the drainage work in Burripalem. We have just completed the drainage work there. Also, Roopa Ram Maganti, who heads both the villages’ upliftment programmes has played an important role for the initiative,” says Namrata. Sudhir Reddy, who is a renowned architect from Hyderabad has agreed to design an eco-friendly school building in Siddhapuram, which will be a first of its kind. Namrata plans to make a similar school in Burripalem too.

Since adopting both the villages, Mahesh and Namrata have organised many health camps and events. However, Namrata feels there is still a long way to go to make these villages, smart villages. “It’s a slow and challenging process, but I have learnt a lot from it, and I am still learning. I try to see that we get the best we can from all our sponsors, and those who donate for such cause.”