MUMBAI: Konidela Siva Sankara Vara Prasad, known by his stage name Chiranjeevi, is an Indian film actor, dancer, producer, singer, voice artist, politician, businessman, investor and a member of the Indian National Congress. Chiranjeevi has attended the Madras Film Institute and has worked primarily in Telugu cinema, in addition to Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi films. He made his acting debut in 1978, with the film Punadhirallu. Known for his break dancing skills, Chiranjeevi was starred in 150 feature films in a variety of roles.

Chiranjeevi recently recalled an incident that he experienced in the year 1988. He went on to say, ‘’In 1988, I and Naga Babu went to Delhi to receive the Nargis Dutt Best Feature Film Award for Best Film on National Integration for my film 'Rudraveena'. Before the awards event has begun, we happened to see a few film posters on the wall showcasing the history and grandeur of Indian cinema from the Prithiviraj Kapoor to Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan. Rajesh Khanna, and Dharmendra, every Bollywood actor’s body of work was described on the posters.’’

"I thought I would see some legendary south film stars' posters similarly. But they just showcased the dancing poster of MGR (M G Ramachandran) and Jayalalithaa. They just wrote on the poster that it was South Indian cinema. But it was so incredibly humiliating for me as I did not see any picture of Telugu legends such as N.T.Rama Rao, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Sivaji Ganesan and Kannada legendary actors Dr Rajkumar, Vishnuvardhan. Who were demigods to the south. They only projected Hindi cinema as Indian cinema. They described other industries as regional language cinema," he said.

Chiranjeevi also founded the Chiranjeevi Charitable Foundation, established in 1998, which is involved in humanitarian activities. In 2008, he entered politics by forming the Praja Rajyam Party. In the 2009 Andhra Pradesh elections, Chiranjeevi contested from his native places, Palakollu and Tirupati. Later, in February 2011, his Praja Rajyam Party merged into the Indian National Congress. He is also a co-owner of Indian Super League side Kerala Blasters.

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Credits: TOI