When some guy, supposedly the hero of the film and on top of it, Megastar Chiranjeevi’s brother tried some freakish martial art feat of breaking marbles on the chest and putting bear hands under moving wheels, people thought him to be an exhibitionist. But, Tholiprema screened us the sedated artist in this so called “exhibitionist”. But when he bullies around singing “Malli neekendukura pelli…” or adamantly challenges his antagonist as “Nuv Nandavaithe…ne Badri…Badrinath…ithe enti?” or intimidates a kingpin like ‘Gudumba Satthi’ pronouncing his name “Siddhu…Siddhartha Roy”, his fan following only increased by folds. At one stage, with a super hit [Gokulamlo Seeta] and consecutive blockbusters [Suswagatam, Tholiprema, Thammudu, Badri, Kushi], Pawan Kalyan became Powerstar and this Powerstar was just a half mile away from the Sun in his career! And here give a pause…
With consecutive hits anyone will dance at heights and with just two consecutive flops, both the market and fan-following might go for a toss. But, Powerstar Pawan Kalyan is one of the few actors in India to whom the first sentence of this paragraph doesn’t and shall never apply. If you innocently ask us why, his cult stardom and fandom should be the right answers to you. With falling hits, fan-following might increase, but for ‘fan-base’ to increase, it takes that extra “something” in the star that magnetizes and blindly second your star of all his yippie and yike deeds and Pawan Kalyan has got tons of that something! Otherwise, an average cine-goer and trade pundit wonders how does the so-called “eccentric” Pawan Kalyan adorns such a fan-base despite of having as many disasters as his blockbusters!
He might be an outré to this world, but people close to him know the ‘real Pawan Kalyan’. The simple, serene, introvert, individualistic personality that flashes occasionally is the closest face of Pawan Kalyan true to his nature. Behind this known face, there is a lesser known benevolent face of this Powerstar which paves out how much ever publicity he wishes to avoid. The recent coconut-sipping with some oblivious old man in this scorching heat, on the sets of his forthcoming 'Attharintiki Daaredi' tells us how simple, earthy star he is! Even back in the recent past, he has even economically helped Pavala Syamala, a senior artist [the mother of Sangeetha in the film 'Khadgam'] who was suffering insolvency. And his philanthropic activities have completely hated the media’s eye. Even politically, though he headed Yuvarajyam once, he maintained his integrity by ideologically differing and quitting the scene when Prajarajyam merged in Congress.
Though he is from a star family, whatever stardom he enjoys today [unarguably more than Megastar Chiranjeevi] is all self-earned which he pretty much deserves of the identity that radiates out. Call it consciousness, itch, enlightenment and give it any number of names, adjectives aside, he has grown from just a person to an icon. That’s why fans don’t simply love him…they ‘Ism’ him!