Chiranjeevi Sarja, fondly called Chiru, is still the same imp that he was back in college. The 27-year-old Kannada actor does not shy away from confessing that he was spoilt silly in college, and that he carries the same traits of “living life king size” even to this day when he has carved a niche for himself with a host of roles in some of his recent films.
The plain sailing Chiru laughs when he remembers his college days studying arts in Vijaya Junior College. He says, “Well, let me be honest. I was not a good student. I was as mischievous as one can get. Bunking classes, whiling my time away from classes and textbooks and enjoying my time with friends was a routine for me.”
“The time that you enjoy wasting is not actually wasted,” were John Lennon’s famous words. Chiru prefers to attribute this to his own college experience. “My college timings were really helpful in my quest to party with my friends. With the first class at 8am and the last one at 12.30pm, I really had the whole day to myself. If I ever attended college, it used to be the 10-10.30am class,” says Chiru.
Going further, Chiru does not hesitate to state that he was nothing less than a ‘terror’ in his college. “I really had enerned a very bad name for myself. So much so that I was known for my attitude,” he says. Racking his memory to pick out one prank that he pulled off in college, Chiru reminisces, “Well, there was this one girl who sat in front of me during exams. And of course, I had not studied one bit. Before the exam started, I literally threatened her to show me her answers. Frightened, the girl had no option, but to share her answers with me.”
Naturally, Chiru shared a very strained relationship with his lecturers. While most of them had given up hope on the actor becoming a ‘good’ student, he says that those who tried gave up soon, too. “The brat that I was, I had reached a stage where I was very informal with my lecturers. When they tried to put some sense into me, I told them, ‘What is this, boss? How can we talk without our glasses filled?’ This is how I spoke to them,” remembers Chiru, the 2002-2006 batch student.
However, Chiru did respect and pay heed to the words of one lecturer. “It was my sociology lecturer who was the only person I obeyed. If sociology was my favourite subject in college, it was all due to my lecturer. I could never miss his classes,” he says, and adds, “only his classes.”
Any extra-curricular activities? “How can that be, when I hardly attended college?” he laughs. Nevertheless, he says cricket was a sport he played in college. “If there was any competition with cricket, I always participated.” “I was pretty okay, too,” he is quick to add.
After all these years, does the nephew of Tamil actor, Arjun Sarja and grandson of veteran Kannada actor, Shakti Prasad, regret his doings in college? Chiru gives a mixed response. “Well, you must know that I was such a devil that I even spoiled others. Looking back now, I enjoyed whatever I did. Having said that, there are times I feel that I should have studied well,”
he says.
The still ‘single’ Chiru remained a stag in college, too. In his words, “I never had a girlfriend per se. I tried to pick up several girls in college, though,” he says, comically refusing to divulge the results of his efforts.
“But with whatever I did, I knew my limits. Never did I cause physical or deep mental harm to anyone,” says Chiru, who is still friends with his other naughty friends. “Oh yes, we’ve been friends for close to 17 years now,” he signs off.
— bharath@newindainexpress.com