Nagarjuna joked that despite appearing in films across several Indian languages, he is still called ‘south actor’ in the press. He said that no matter what bracket people put him in, he’s proud of his roots.
Nagarjuna, who works predominantly in the Telugu film industry, has also starred in Tamil and Hindi films. In an interview with Bollywood Bubble, he said that he still faces the discrimination to this day, but is unbothered. “Even now, whenever I walk in a restaurant somewhere in Delhi or Mumbai, they say, ‘South ka actor hai’. They say that, at the airports, CISF guys. I keep hearing that,” he said.
His son, Naga Chaitanya, said in the same interview that like his father, he’s proud of his roots, and credited technology with having bridged the divide. “It’s nice that this whole south Indian north Indian divide is getting diluted. It’s always been the case. We’re all human beings and we all connect to the same emotion. It’s good that films are also being seen in that way now,” he said.
The father-son duo starred together in Bangarraju, which released to negative critical reception but massive box office returns last week. The Indian Express review called it a ‘sorry excuse of a movie’, awarding it one-and-a-half stars out of five. The film made a reported Rs 53 crore in its opening weekend, even as several states across the country enforce new restrictions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bangarraju is the sequel to the film Soggade Chinni Nayana and is the second collaboration between Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya, after Manam, which also featured the late ANR, Nagarjuna’s father and Chaitanya’s grandfather. Nagarjuna will soon be seen in Ayan Mukerji’s fantasy epic Brahmastra.
