I have often felt that Telugu movie fans are perhaps the most agitated in the world.
You have to see some of the discussion forums on Telugu films - they are filled with abusive language. People take sides based on (shudder) caste, they use all L-kodaka gaalis, and they in general behave like their lives are dedicated to one man who is making a lot of money and fame for himself. And all this mostly because he was born in the right family.
And they are elated when a star does some charity, simply because they feel other rich people do not.
Of every 100 people who can reach Chiranjeevi's wealth and fame, 80 will do all the charity he does, and many might do more. It is human nature - that kind of success humbles, and also, people feel guilty if they do not share their wealth with the needy when they have a lot of it. 80-90% of people are inherently good, and even several people who might have been bad become good when they have all the basic necessities of life and then some more - they then start thinking of helping others since they have what they want.
It is stupid to say that Chiranjeevi is like God just because he does some charity. Does he donate everything except what he needs to survive? That for me would take him from good to great, and worthy of praise.
Giving what you can afford to give is not great. Giving after it starts to actually hurt you is great.
Chiranjeevi is an artiste who is good at what he does. But we cannot take his reel life so seriously that we pray him. His daughter has just said that she was kept under house arrest for a year. I would feel that she would not make those kinds of allegations against her own father, if they weren't true - why would she slander a loving father in public?
And if she felt safe about what she did, she wouldn't run away, changing cars all the way to Delhi. It makes Chiranjeevi look like the villians we see in our movies.
No, Chiranjeevi does not to me look like his reel avatars. He is just another human being who puts his preferences above his daughter's when it comes to choosing her life partner. He has his good, he also has his bad, like all of us.
Then, many of his fans are amongst the most ill-behaved, if the ones I have seen are any indication - I remember the opening show of Stalin in a place like Prasads, where at the end they were enmasse giving L-kodaka gaalis to someone who was telling a friend on the phone that it was an average movie (which eventually it anyway proved to be). This after watching a film where their hero told them to pass on good deeds.
Indeed, hardcore abuses flow liberally among several of them, and I believe several of them are planning to hurt Sirish whenever they find him. For marrying a girl he loves, with her complete consent.
You can't, of course, blame Chiranjeevi for the way some of his fans are. But I was very upset to read how they are
sending hate mail to Sirish. What wrong did Sirish do?
It's shameful to even think of caste as a factor in determining marriages. And wealth should never come in the way of love. Isn't that what Chiranjeevi said in plenty of films throughout his career?
Yes, Sirish did what Chiranjeevi himself endorsed in movie after movie, even at the peak of his career when he knew he was a role model and crores of people would see him as example, and he had the liberty to decline roles he felt would propogate something wrong. Either he has double standards, or he was reckless in using his power as a huge matinee idol to propogate something he feels is wrong, something he would not do in his own life.
Chiranjeevi could have easily told his fans that Sirish is his daughter's husband and they should respect him as a member of his family. That is what he would have done if he is as great as some fans try to make of him. That is what he would have liked to do in a movie script, judging by the image he has built.
Perhaps I would have been more charitable to Chiranjeevi if he did not have so many fans who so easily abuse others' mothers, who do not respect someone else's right to his opinion, and who threaten to hurt someone against the law of the country they live in. Sometimes, yatha praja tatha raja. And unfortunately, these few people paint all the good fans who are actually tolerant and help society inspired by Chiranjeevis' roles, with the same brush.