Chiranjeevi for Dummies

Chiranjeevi is the Man in news today for various reasons. Who is this Chiranjeevi?

1. Chiranjeevi is his film name. His real name is - Konidela Siva Sankara Vara Prasad. He a staunch devotee of Lord Hanuman and hence at the time of entering the film career - he changed his name as Chiranjeevi. In Andhra Pradesh, he also called affectionately, Chiru.

2. He comes from a very ordinary middle / lower middle class family. His childhood was like that of any Coastal Andhra lad - nothing great to record. He was an average student at his studies

3. Chiru joined Film institute at Madras (Chennai) and then like any other aspirants, started to try his luck in Tollywood films (then based in Chennai)

4. His initial roles were very much solo appearances. He struggled initially in his career to get a foot hold in highly competitive Tollywood industry. The days when Chiru trying his luck to enter the industry, it was dominated by household names like NTR, ANR, Krishna and Sobhanbabu.

5. After making number of negative or side hero roles, Chiru met with a huge success at box office with film Khaidi

6. From early 1980's Chiru's domination in the Tollywood started and as the days went by he is being iconified like the legend NTR

7. Though a very talent actor, his box office success driven him more towards commercial masala movies - like Gang leader having huge mass appeal. Some of his best performances have come in the movies like Subhalekha or Rudraveena. Perhaps to retain his mass appeal, Chiru failed to capitalise on his overall acting talents and thus lost an opportunity to become a legend like NTR.

8. Chiru married the daughter of Allu Ramalingaiah, a versatile comedian in the Telugu industry at the time he was establishing himself in Tollywood. Today, people refer - both these families together as Tollywood first family. Two of his brothers are actors, his brother in law (considered to be his chief adviser) is a producer. His son and nephew are also been into movies.

9. Chiru got a huge fan following across the AP state. His fans spread across a couple of generations due to his quater of a century presence in the industry.

10. Chiru's career peaked in late 90's. Since then, Chiru is getting on with his legecy appeal. He does only a couple of movies in a year. Due to expensive budget needs for his films, the RoI (Return on investement) aspect leaves very few producers in the business for him. He is considered to be highest paid actor in Tollywood.

11. Chiru runs a number of charitable organisation in Andhra notable are - blood bank and eye bank

12. Despite his near monopoly in the industry, Chiranjeevi is very well respected by everyone. People close to him say he is "modest and sensitive person". He rarely involved in any controversies until the problems in his family front started making headlines.

13. He was awarded a doctorate and Padma Vibushan, one of the highest civilian awards by Government of India

14. Chiru's problems started couple of years back with the marriage of his eldest daughter. A proposed inter-caste marriage was cancelled at the last minute due to pressure from his family advisers. This was followed by the allegations by one of the leading film stars in the Tollywood Diamond jubilee celebration, brought Chiranjeevi into front line for wrong reasons. Then, one of his brother got involved in a marriage issue and it dragged him to the foot steps of courts. His 2nd daughter by eloping and marrying her lover, brought further damage to Chiru's reputation.

15. Chiru is under significant pressure from various circles to enter the politics. He comes a dominant community that is politically deprived of power. The changing political scene in Andhra Pradesh is literally pushing him to make some decision.