"I failed in business"

Minus the multi-coloured clothes, the cowboy hat and the heavy-Southern accent, Quick Gun Murugan becomes Rajendra Prasad, a simple, unassuming actor who was once known as Andhra Pradesh’s Charlie Chaplin. After making people laugh for 32 years, the 217-movies-old Prasad who was relegated to two-bit comedy scenes in Tollywood movies lately, has made a killer comeback.

And on an international arena at that. The actor talks about his Quick Gun journey, the Reddy controversy the movie is embroiled in and the “mistake” of delaying the film’s release in AP.“The film should’ve released in AP on the same day it had a country-wide release. But Fox star, the distributors of the film insisted that since I’m from here, the Telugu and English versions should be released together. I tried to convince them, but they wouldn’t budge. Corporates have their own style of working. We have finished dubbing it in Telugu too, so we will soon release it in the state,” says Prasad, who denies that the Rice Plate Reddy controversy has delayed the release.

“The fact that the villain is called Rice Plate Reddy is not intentional and is definitely not a dig at the Reddy community. I played characters like Appula Apparao and Pekata Papa Rao in my films. That doesn’t mean everyone with those names are always in debt! The name only makes fun of the character and shouldn’t be taken as a generalised statement. It’s all for entertainment,” he defends.

AP fans may be missing out on the action, but with the rave reviews the movie is getting worldwide, this Quick Gun is on a high and has already signed four Tollywood films. This success is in fact, all the more special for the actor who is yet to overcome a severe financial crisis after a production venture went wrong.“My only passion in the last 32 years has been cinema, I never focused on investments. No wonder then that I failed in business. Now I realise the importance of investment. At one point in time, I did 12 movies a year. If I’d bought even one prime property every time I did a film, I would have been the richest man in the industry,” says this actor who lives in a modest apartment in Khairatabad.

With his fortunes now looking up, the actor is now all set to launch his son, Balaji, in Tollywood. “When he told me that he wanted to be an actor, I asked him to first forget that he was a star son. It is important for him to develop his own style. Right now he is training in Mumbai and should make his debut next year,” says Prasad.

The actor is an alumnus of the Madras Film Institute where he trained along with Rajnikanth and Chiranjeevi. “Earlier it was difficult to become an actor, but it was easy to retain the success once you became a star. But these days it is easy to become an actor and difficult to keep your position,” says the star, who has also dabbled in politics. Prasad, who had earlier campaigned for the Telugu Desam party, says, “Politicians are great actors. I supported TDP since it was established by N.T. Rama Rao, but I soon realised that I was not cut out for politics. I didn’t like the whole system,” he says.