BALAKRISHNA, son of legendary NTR, has shot two people. CHINMAYEE MANJUNATH traces the colourful family tree

As a child growing up in Andhra Pradesh, I truly believed that Lord Krishna looked like NT Rama Rao. It’s a cripplingly embarrassing confession to make but it bears witness to the legendary influence of the man. Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (popularly called NTR) made his debut in 1949. For the next 33 years, he reigned supreme over Telugu cinema, acting in nearly 292 movies, several of them mythological. It is often said that when NTR would appear on screen as Krishna in Maya Bazaar, aartis were performed in theatres. Life-size cut outs adorned the streets of towns and any public function he attended guaranteed daylong traffic jams.

NTR’s success and the hysteria of his fan following defies the imagination. With his exit from cinema in 1982, when he started the Telugu Desam Party, this heritage passed on to his son, Balakrishna, and then to his grandson, NTR Jr.

True to the amplified pitch the family has lived at, Balakrishna, commonly called Babai, hit the headlines last week for shooting at two people at his residence in Hyderabad’s plush Jubilee Hills. Balakrishna was once a superstar — almost as popular as his father in the 1980s. His films have to be seen to be believed. Most of them had mega budgets, bizarrely filmed songs, simpering heroines like Sridevi or Jayaprada, crude humour and Balakrishna swathed in white. Over the last few years, Balakrishna has been keeping away from the public eye. He is considered an even-tempered and disciplined man, and the shooting spree has been rather uncharacteristic.

According to eyewitnesses, Balakrishna shot them in self-defence but this has not been substantiated. “We will not really know what caused this because the Telugu film industry is very guarded and most film journals depend on hand-outs,” says SV Srinivas, a Fellow at the Centre for Study of Culture and Society in Bangalore.

The family tree is not untainted by cinematic pastiche. NTR Jr’s father is Balakrishna but since he is the son from a second marriage, he is considered illegitimate. For quite some time after his entry into films in 2001, the pudgy NTR Jr, all of 19, called himself an “orphan” in an industry that deifies the Nandamuris. This just accelerated the masses’ acceptance of him. The trailers of his film, Andhrawala (which bombed spectacularly) showed NTR Jr unveiling statues of his grandfather. Casting himself in the role of a mass hero, a genre perfected by NTR and Balakrishna, NTR Jr is now one of the most successful Telugu stars. In the recent elections, there was talk of him entering politics, but he preferred to stay away.

A rather twisted branch of this tree is Chandrababu Naidu, the deposed CEO of Andhra Pradesh. His defeat has brought a long-standing family feud full circle. In the early 1990s, NTR, then a widower, married his biographer, Lakshmi Parvathi. This swarthy woman, painted by many as a Rasputin of sorts, was now at the centre of political power. NTR’s nine children were not pleased. Parvathi’s interference in the affairs of the tdp also alienated several party members. Consequently, in 1995, Naidu deposed his father-in-law in a silent coup and became chief minister. Heart-broken and helpless, NTR died in 1996. His ashes were preserved by Parvathi, who vowed to immerse them only after Naidu was humiliated publicly, in a manner similar to her husband.

When contacted in Hyderabad, Lakshmi Parvathi says, “My son, Balakrishna, is a nice man and I cannot understand why he did this. I am praying to God to save him. But the bad man in this family is that Naidu and I am glad he is defeated. Now both my husband and I have peace of mind.”

Certainly melodramatic, but befitting the kind of reputation that NTR and his family have fostered over generations. Strapping, with a finely chiselled face, NTR attained extraordinary fame with films like Maya Bazaar, Pathala Bhairavi and Misamma. In many of his later films, he played the patriarch who fought all odds to keep his family together before passing the mantle on to his son — also played by NTR! A ploy repeated by Balakrishna in some films and NTR Jr in Andhrawala.
In the South, NTR was probably the only star who could match the sort of adulation the Tamil hero, MGR drew. Both men made disastrous films as they grew older and then stepped into political careers that were no less dramatic. But their appeal did not dwindle.