A tribute to Krishna & Mahesh Babu.

Some stars choose themes close to their experiences. One needs to have actually done something to experience it. One cannot imagine anyone else in Alluri Seetarama raju role except Actor Krishna. I might have seen that movie more than a hundred times since childhood. I am not anyone’s fan but there are some movies to whom we remain fans. Similarly one cannot even compare someone else in periodic roles except NTR. Their impeccable dialogue delivery in the roles have resulted in outstanding periodic movies. 80s movies Swarnakamalam, Rudraveena, Swathumuthyam, Sirivennela, Sruthilayalu, Subhasankalpam,Swathikiranam,Sagarasangamam, are timeless movies which always remain etched in our minds. We may not remember those actors but we do remember the movies. One cannot deny though that the directors choose actors who could only act in movies. A Movie like Deiva Thirumagal was dubbed in other languages but no performance emerged anywhere close to Chiyaan's acting.. It was one of the finest movies of Vikram. 



Movies like Rangasthalam, Kanche, Bahubali, Pushpa, KGF brought out extraordinary talent out of actors and elevated them altogether to different heights. It also made them mature actors. They have reached a pinnacle stage and mature actors. When an actor reaches his peak, audiences want that to continue and hence want them to don mature roles only henceforth. If they now move to the normal routine mass masala route, they will lose their impact. This has happened with several actresses especially in the past 5 decades. Several of these actresses maintained continuity by switching to parent roles and became popular in joint family parental roles.

Bringing the discussion back to Krishna, the movie Alluri Seetarama raju caused perennial rivalry between Actors Krishna & NTR. Competition in the movie industry continued into politics too. Krishna produced many movies criticising NTR’s government. The rivalry started with Krishna supporting the Jai Andhra movement while others remained tight-lipped. He chose a different genre and produced multi starrers, where he didn’t mind playing the second fiddle. Since periodicals was completely dominated by NTR, Krishna choose thrillers, cowboy and adventure movies. After joining politics, NTR's relationship with the film industry declined. Krishna joined congress on invitation of Rajiv Gandhi. Some of the yester-years negative reviews against Krishna & Mahesh Babu stem from this rivalry.


Mahesh Babu's choice of movies in past decade differs from his "son of krishna" period. He has emerged as an independent actor adopting different themes. Trolls point to his stoicness but that is also a style. He has acted in lesser movies compared to his other contempories.  His past decade movies remain fresh always, not his earlier years movies where he was just the Prince. Each movie remains fresh in memory and certainly conveys a strong message. What needs to be seen is the versatility of  movies taken up by him. Khaleja focused on faith while Sarkaaru Vaari Paata exposed how NPAs are used by politicians to the common man.

Brahmotsavam inspired me so much that I brought together 5 generations of my family together under one roof.If there was no such movie, i would have never got the idea. I learned a lot by connecting with several distant relatives whom I never even knew about.  It is a known fact that Mahesh Babu is also a known philanthropist. His father Krishna had focused on contributing to his native village, Burripalem. He gave employment to many youth from his village, burripalem in his studios. Krishna donated towards construction of function halls, temples and ZP High school buildings. Krishna’s mother donated land for constructing a school in Burripalem. Krishna never did publicise his philanthropy and never did Mahesh too. Mahesh Babu continued his father’s works and built roads and improved drainage systems. So Srimanthudu is inspired by his family’s story. He has inspired many youths to join the police force/army.  Since it is a original story, it inspired youth and many adopted their native villages.

Brahmotsavam was a feeling. When i tried to put together seven generations together, i had to do a lot of homework.It took me months to contact all and get them on page. Once communication started via a whatsapp group, time took over and broke down barriers of communication. Suddenly, i had so many uncles and aunties, sisters, brothers- 350 of them. I myself was in fifth generation and became grandfather to the seventh generation kids. I was now son to some and nephew to some whom i never knew earlier. It was a thrilling experience. After all this, i built a website, www.valiveti.in capturing our family tree and our family members in it. From 2nd generation to the seventh generation, placed all photos in it. This process involved talking with almost 90 families. All along, i saw brahmotsavam several times, not all movie but from the stage where samantha and mahesh start visiting relatives. After all, it is blood relation from which noone can escape.

Last year, March 6,2022, brought 100 of them together finally.Happily,all agreed. It is now 13 months since that event happened but it looks like it happened yesterday. So fresh since noone thought it was possible but it really happened. 

The videos of the meeting are available at

Valiveti Vari Brahmotsavam- 1 and Valiveti Vari Brahmotsavam-2 

To all those who gathered there, it was an unforgettable experience, so many different relations all coming together at one place. There is noone except Mahesh Babu and Srikanth Addala for this. It would have been good if he would have focused on this theme from the starting of the movie. It would have then achieved phenomenal success. The theme does not start till middle of the movie.Not all good movies achieve box office success. Srikanth Addala focused on a theme that many would normally consider impossible to achieve. Hence it did not get to people immediately. Having experienced that pain myself to bring together the generations, i can attest that Srikanth Addala was far ahead of his time. It was not easy for me and when i started, i did not believe that i could do it but i was able to do it since many helped me along in bringing the family together. Piecing the past was important since a few years from now, there would be noone to tell me. There is another branch of my family which got separated 100 years back. Now, they want to join back. But we do not have family tree and relations cannot be assumed since it will make huge differences later. Hence we are keeping both branches separately. If these kind of events happen regularly like Shashtipoorthi, then obviously Brahmotsavam would have been a hit automatically. Kudos to director and actor for thinking of this far ahead of their time. 

This article is a tribute to Super Star Krishna. Also wish to thank Krishna's legacy heir, Actor Mahesh Babu and Director Srikanth Addala for their visionary movie, Brahmotsavam.

                     - Uma Desu, B.Tech, M.A, CIP, CMSLC, NLP, CLC, PGDip