Why the Singapore trip bombed

After  Mohan Babu, the next term was taken over by Naga Babu. Let’s see what this Babu did in his two year term. I remember Jagapati Babu  became the vice prez and after a week he said he wished to resign.  Ayyappa P Sharma who is known for his extra talk took over and this angered the late Mallikarjuna Rao who was the secretary. He felt that Ayyappa becoming a member itself is a wonder and it was incomprehensible how one can take him in a more important position. Well, after moving Srikant&Srihari , Naga Babu went about his work up. Remember the dialogue, “I won’t go home, I told my wife that from today and now all MAA members have become my children and I have to take care of them etc etc..” He did mean it but the problem is Naga Babu suffers from arambasuratvam….the sincerity and the conviction with which he begins his work doesn’t be consistent all through. First day artistes kosame puttaanu anna feeling icchina Naga Babu worked hard for the next ten days and one week. He made the members run helter skelter and spoke about pensions, healthcards for all members and their families etc.

 After that he would come to the office for an hour i.e 12 to 1pm and 5 to 6pm. Timings changed. After that he would go to the association once in ten days then later once in 4 months and then eventually would ask for the register to be sent home for signatures. But then since he is duty bound and he is surrounded by a person like Ayyappa , many programmes and ideas kept cropping up. One such idea that came across Ayyappa’s mind was a Singapore-malyasia trip to gather corpus fund for MAA that could be used for pensions and for the welfare of the aged artistes. He told MB that he knew a few people in Chennai and a company that does event management stuff and would organize a star night in Singapore. So Mr A organized the trip, got things moving and the Company paid them an advance of 25 lakhs with special flight etc. All the actors agreed to participate. The understanding that they would raise two and a half crore and the Company would pay the complete amount by the time they reached Singapore.

Now before the tour commenced, Ayyappa struck upon a brilliant idea. He wanted to see the place where the show would be conducted and the following embarked on a journey: Mallikarjuna Rao, Naga Babu, Ayyappa and Poonam Kaur. Since Poonam refused to travel alone she was allowed to bring her brother along with her. So they went for four days, spent around five lakhs and came back. Immediately they held press meets and there was plenty of hadaavidi. A week later there was no development, the Company people informed them, no funds programme cancelled. They can still perform and money could be adjusted after the show. Anthe story katham. the company asked for a refund of that 25 lakhs but i guess they gave only a part of it.

P.S : Some more light on that election: You know that Mohan Babu and Sivaji Raja were not on talking terms. When Naga Babu became the president Sivaji Raja was for the secretary’s post. MB said,….evaraina okay except Sivaji Raja and NB said he wanted only Sivaji Raja. Mohan Babu insisted Mallikarjuna Rao should be the secretary and it did happen..