Do you get provoked? “Try” says Kalyan

It’s late afternoon and two men from Nandyal are waiting at Kalyans’ house for an audience. They’ve come to donate two ambulances to The Common Man Protection Force flagged off by the actor. It’s barely a week since it’s been established and there’s been overwhelming support from people all over Andhra and from his fans worldwide. While sceptics disagree and dub it as filmi stunt, Kalyan calls it ‘hope for an utopian situation.”

Kalyan talks on what led him into announcing his outfit the CMPF suddenly and dramatically. Dressed in white like an apostle and brandishing a revolver, the actor stepped into the Jubilee Hills Police Station to surrender his weapon with zillion fans and media lapping up the moments last week. He guffaws, “It’s been ten years since I have been wearing such clothes on and off, I love soft linen and it’s just that you‘ve all been seeing me in that now and I wasn’t brandishing it, I was just holding it in a particular way, I can’t aim it at someone right? People’s interpretations are different.”

He adds, “By surrendering it I wanted to convey to my niece that I intend no harm and next since I was launching CMPF I wanted to show that I’m really committed and not interested in safe guarding my life.” Though the intention is earnest, isn’t the timing wrong? Kalyan quips, “I agree and also disagree with them. I might think on similar lines if I’m in their place. Next, inspite of all the trauma we were going through I went ahead and announced it. Just because of a personal problem, I didn’t want to postpone it. In what way is my family issue connected with this? I can’t help it if people think that way but the fact is that I have done it in utmost sincerity.”

The actor has always been branded maverick, reclusive and impetuous and he nods in affirmation when you ask him if he is mostly misunderstood. “People have judged me by my one action but that doesn’t bother me. I’m not an attention seeker and also I never get provoked, I only react. A man abused me today and I only gave him a blank stare but I don’t behave like a statue when there’s some injustice happening or someone is in pain.”

He waxes eloquent on his dream project. “I don’t like the coldness in the atmosphere, people are treated as subjects, as inanimate objects. I remember when I was in the fifth standard, I was cycling my way home at 6.30 in the evening and the police detained me and refused to let me go home till 10.30 just because there wasn’t a light on the cycle. My mother was very worried. They are simple issues but all of them have piled up.”

The actor makes it clear that he isn’t here to solve anything and he is merely providing a platform for people to come together to address their issues, to establish a connectivity, a network where each one helps someone in distress by speaking out through counsel or otherwise.

He signs off, “We are building relations between strangers and as an actor I’m using this status to usher this element of change in society and even if one sleeps without a hungry stomach I would be gratified. There is no money involved. I’m not forming a parallel government I’m just asking for self sufficient volunteers to do some selfless service in their free time.”