It was a ‘goosebump’ moment for me, an Indian student in the US, that too a student from the Telugu land, to be able to listen to Tollywood actor ‘Power Star’ Pawam Kalyan speak at the 14th edition of the India Conference at Harvard University on Sunday. It was obvious that the star is hero worshipped even in the US, because his fans in New York managed to turn up in good numbers and chanted his title ‘Power Star’ relentlessly from the time his name was called out to the time he settled down to speak.
The event had a good representation from universities. It felt great to note that mana Telugu movie star was only one with bouncers at the event. What swag! In the 20-minute speech, he touched upon the law in the country, his own childhood and his political ideals too. My fan boy moment when I was allowed to ask him one question. I asked: ‘You maybe busy juggling films and politics. But where are the representatives of your party? Have they gone into oblivion too? We have not seen them fight for any social cause, except promoting you on social media.” The star said that his representatives were there at the dias too and said that answered my question. Although I wasn’t satisified with what he said, I was happy I could speak to him on an international dais. Many of his fans would have loved to take a picture with him but the star went away giving the dinner reception a skip. All in all, it was power packed.
(Anief is a student of New York University
(Masters in Computer Science and was representing his college at the event)