It is the biggest compliment for ONV, says Nag!
The combination of Nagarjuna and K Raghavendra Rao in recent times delivered three devotional movies – Annamayya, Sriramadasu and Shirdi Sai – which were super hits. The same combination repeated once again for another devotional movie. JK Bharavi who penned the script for Annamayya and Sriramadasu, had agreed to pen the script for ‘Om Namo Venkatesaya’.
Surprisingly, Raghavendra Rao had preferred Saurabh Jain, a TV artiste of northern India, to play the role of Lord Venkateswara instead of Suman, who did the same role in Annamayya. Everyone thought that the director had committed a mistake as the audiences may not show any interest on other language artistes, especially in devotional movies. But all the suspicions were vanished in thin air, as Saurabh really mesmerised the audiences with his glamour and performance.
At one stage, audiences had got a feel that a Godly figure should be like Saurabh Jain and unexpectedly, many of their hands raised to offer a namaskaram (greeting). Once again Nagarjuna perfectly fit in to the groove of a devotee and proved that he is the perfect heir of thespian, the late Akkineni Nageswara Rao, who delivered such performance in his prime age in the roles of Vipra Narayana, Bhakta Tukaram and so on.
Nagarjuna says, “While watching the movie, my wife Amala was really moved. Especially she has no words to express while watching the climax scenes. Several audiences questioned me whether I really saw the God, because they were so impressed with my performance.” What more compliment an actor could get for his performance in a film? I liked all the songs, but my favourite song is ‘Kamaneeyam...’, he added.
