Chiranjeevi was ‘humiliated’ when stars like Sivaji Ganesan were ignored at National Awards while Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar were celebrated: ‘It was like an insult’

Chiranjeevi has been a part of Indian movies for almost 50 years now and continues to be one of the most significant cultural figures of Telugu cinema. But despite being one of the most loved stars of the country, Chiranjeevi felt “insulted” and “humiliated” when he visited New Delhi for the National Awards ceremony in 1989. Chiranjeevi shared that when his film Rudraveena was honoured with the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration, he realised that bureaucrats in the government in Delhi saw “Hindi cinema as Indian cinema” and he saw this as an insult towards the other cinema industries of the country.

At the pre-release event for his film Acharya in 2022, Chiranjeevi recalled that he was invited for a high tea ceremony by the government in 1989 before the National Awards ceremony. He recalled looking at a wall that celebrated the icons of cinema like Prithviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan but omitted legends like Sivaji Ganesan and Raj Kumar. “I kept walking in expectation to see something on south films. However, there was only a still of MGR with Jayalalithaa and a photo of Prem Nazir. They titled it as South Films. Just that. They did not recognise stalwarts like Raj Kumar or Vishnuvardhan or NT Ramarao or Nageshwara Rao or Sivaji Ganesan or even the legendary filmmakers of our industries. I felt very humiliated at that moment. It was like an insult. They portrayed Hindi cinema as Indian cinema. While other films were categorised as ‘regional films’ and were not given respect,” he recalled. Chiranjeevi said that he spoke about it back then as well but did not get a satisfactory response.

Chiranjeevi brought this up again Aha’s special Fireside Chat with Rajeev Masand in 2024 where he shared that photos of stars like Dilip Kumar were hung on those walls but many stars from the south were ignored. “From the South, there were photos of legendary Kannada superstar Rajkumar, and Tamil legend MGR. I felt bad that photos of our very own NT Rama Rao garu and Akkineni Nageswara Rao garu, and even Sivaji Ganesan sir weren’t there,” he said. Chiranjeevi felt that the idea of Hindi cinema representing the entirety of Indian cinema was unfair but he was proud that after SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali, things had started to change as films from other industries were not restricted by regional boundaries anymore.

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In the last few years, the conversation around Hindi vs South cinema has gained momentum. In 2024, Pushpa 2 made more money in Hindi than its Telugu version. It was also the biggest Hindi grosser of the year, leaving behind films like Stree 2 and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3.