Of negative charm

He is a combination of charming rusticity and finesse. Standing tall at 6 ft 3 inches and heading towards his thirty, Subburaju is clearly an eligible bachelor in the telugu film industry. At first glance one would mistake him to be a hero but he is often seen playing the evil role and has so far completed 88 films in the span of eight years. He is in the news for his noteworthy work in Pourudu, Kantri, Parugu and the recent Bujjigadu where one will not miss him moving towards a slightly positive role.

Ask him if this is a conscious effort to shift to acquiring the nice guy image and then working for a hero’s role, he laughs but replies emphatically. “I have never planned my career and had never been choosy about my roles, it’s just due to luck and sheer providence that things are changing for the better. A role is a role no matter how negative it is. Experimenting with such wide a genre has been an enriching experience.”

 A graduate in chemistry, he comes from a rich academic background. His father is a telugu professor and brother a Sanskrit lecturer and Subburaju has inherited his love for literature eversince he was in school. A voracious reader and an active participant in the school dramas, he nurtured an ambition to become an actor. The first stepping  stone was to become a model and Subburaju walked down the ramp over 60 times, all part time while he slogged to make a living in a private firm.

Subburaju’s ride to success was not smooth, he had his share of ups and downs and recollects struggling in his salad days. His father did gave him unstinted moral support and he quit his job to make acting his career.  He adds, “My toughest days were when I worked long distances in Nallakunta  to catch the vehicle which took the junior artistes to the location.” At the moment he is busy with Deepavali, a Venu starrer and Ma Aayana Chantipillodu and Raksha with Jagapati Babu.

A die hard fan of Al Pacino, Subburaju makes an effort to put his best foot forward always. He feels an actor is a model for an individual, many people look upto film stars as their icon and as such they should be careful about how they present themselves to the world, the way they dress, the words they speak and above all the life should be carefully crafted for emulation by generations.

Finally about his short-tempered role in Parugu, Subburaju says that it was not inspired by any actor or anyone’s life. He says, “This happens in every family, just because it took place in Chiranjeevi’s family people got to talk about it.  The youth should remember that individuality should be a part of their personality but it shouldn’t overcome their personality. When a girl wants an admission in a particular group in a college, when she wants to buy a scooty she does that by convincing her parents but why is she not able to prove her maturity when she wants to choose her life partner?

 Director Bhaskar had been inspired by this point and thus he made this film. We finished the climax in Kodaikanal and landed in Hyderabad, I joined Okka Mogaadu shooting and it is was only then I heard about this news. The rest concerning the story is a figment of people’s imagination.”

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2008/05/27/stories/2008052750130400.htm