“CBN may have lost it big time, but looks like playing his role gave me my career’s biggest break”, says Shri Tej about his movie Lakshmi’s NTR, the Ram Gopal Varma directorial. The actor who hails from Vijayawada says that it’s his 13th year in Tollywood, yet being cast in the role of a controversial leader is giving him professional satisfaction. Tej has worked as the Assistant Director for movies such as Aadavari Matalaku Ardhaley Veruley and has acted in Naa Saami Ranga and Vangaveeti previously.
Recalling about how he landed this tailor-made role for him, the man with the uncanny look of the bearded Telugu Desam supremo says, “Agastya Manju, one of the AD’s of the movie, had noticed my resemblance to CBN but he wasn’t sure I would fit the role as he said I look much ‘young and tender’ and may not make it to the final cut.
However, when someone showed me a picture of him in 1990 with scraggly salt and pepper beard, I felt I could definitely get the look with a little effort. I vividly remember that it was December 26, 2018 and I was told that RGV wanted me to send my pictures if I though I fitted the role. It was 9 pm and the team wanted my pictures immediately.
Most salons were closed and no makeup artist came to my mind. I decided to tweak my look myself. I applied Colgate toothpaste to my beard to get the grey hair and rubbed pencil dust to my face to get puckered cheeks. I sent him a collage of my photos and five minutes after I sent him, he said, you are my CBN.” Tej says he looked up over 1,000 photos and 200 videos of CBN to understand his psyche and body language and the homework made him play the role well.
His parents had tears in their eyes seeing their son in a pivotal role. “My dad dreamt of me becoming a cop. I hope to fulfill that dream on Celluloid soon,” he quips. Soon after he came to Hyderabad in 2004 to realise his cinema dreams, he enrolled for acting classes, dance, theatrics, martial arts etc, “Unlike most folks who have a three or five year deadline, I came here to make it big into the movies and not go back without making a name for myself,” says Tej.
While CBN will have to bide time for the next five years until the next election, looks like Tej’s good time has begun, “Apna time aagaya,” he says with a broad smile. He is currently looking at the biopic of a Bollywood star and one more in Telugu, the details of which are sketchy now.