Chiranjeevi vs Rajasekhar At MAA Diary Launch

A Movie Artistes' Association (MAA) function today to unveil its diary for 2020 saw some interesting interludes.

Telugu film actor Chiranjeevi made a fairly long speech at the event plumping for unity in MAA, a body that has been in the news of late for rifts.

He said that some seniors in the industry had decided to launch the association for the welfare of the Tollywood actors after being inspired by the social service activities of industrialist T Subbarami Reddy, and that the diary was being brought out since the last 20 years to recognize the hard workers each year.

However, as soon as the speech was over, actor Rajasekhar, the Executive Vice-President of the body (Naresh is President and Rajasekhar's wife Jeevitha is General Secretary), took the mike from the moderator Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao without the latter's consent and launched into something of a diatribe.

Even though he started by touching the feet of all the seniors on the dais - Krishnam Raju, T Subbirami Reddy, Chiranjeevi and Mohan Babu among them - the latter two were clearly displeased and unimpressed.

While Rajasekhar's speech was short and mostly a plea to attend to the issues plaguing the body which he claimed were being glossed over, he did not win much favour from the attendees.

Chiranjeevi responded saying that any differences should be discussed in closed door meetings and not in public. He also sought disciplinary action against Rajasekhar by MAA.

Jeevitha spoke a little later saying that Rajasekhar was like a kid who was emotional and spoke his mind, and sought that the dignitaries on stage forgive him. However she too said intemperate things against the media that would have ruffled the feathers of many of the journalists covering the event.

Chiranjeevi ended the event by pleading with the journalists attending it to not highlight the Rajasekhar episode in their coverage. That, however, is not likely to happen.