RAJAHMUNDRY: When the late NT Rama Rao floated the Telugu Desam Party in the early 1980s, giving him a bit of leg-up, so to speak, was lookalike and famous ``record dancer’’ Parnasi Udayakumar (now 65).
While the people waited for the thespian-turned-actor to show up at the rallies, Udayakumar used to regale them with items from popular NTR films.
So convincing was he that many among the rural audiences, taking him for the hero himself, used to break coconuts and offer `Harathi’ while children would seek his autographs.
Udayakumar and fellow dancer and Akkineni Nageswara Rao lookalike Chakravarthy once had their own fan following among filmgoers. Now, Udayakumar lives in his son’s house at Annapurnammapet here. His sight has deteriorated and he relies on hearing to identify people.
With considerable difficulty, he makes his way to a pan shop near which he still sits in the hope that someone will come along and engage his services. Chokaing with emotion, Udayakumar recalls his glory days during the NTR regime when he was treated with respect and even used to move with MLAs and ministers.
Now, imprudence has left him with just an old age artiste pension of Rs 500 and reliance on the meagre earnings of his son, Srinivas, also a ``recording dancer’’ who supplements his income with lessons to children.
Recollecting the golden days of record dancers, he said more than 200 of them used to thrive in East Godavari district during festivals and functions. And in the aftermath of calamities too their services used to be utilised by politicians for fundraising.
Now, with some rogue groups staging obscene dances, police harassment had increased and the professional dancers had lost their livelihood.
He said that he used to imitate NTR and Chakravarthi, who passed away a decade ago, essayed items by Akkineni Nageswara Rao. Among the other heroes mimicked were Krishna, Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Nagarjuna, Mahesh Babu, Allu Ramalingaiah and Rajababu. With patronage drying up, many of them had become daily wage earners or autorickshaw drivers.
Despite having worked for decades, he had no home of his own, Uday Kumar said, and hoped the Government would take note of their plight.
A native of Attili in West Godavari district, Uday Kumar has received several awards for his performances throughout the country.
pvkrao@epml.com
