Horse riding : the new fad in Tollywood town

Reigning stars Ram Charan, Prabhas, Rana and Anushka have learnt a new skill: horse riding- thanks to their warrior roles in films like ‘Magadheera’, ‘Baahubali’ and ‘Rudrama Devi’ and now megastar Chiranjeevi is all set to join the bandwagon since he is set to undergo training to breathe-life into the role of revered freedom fighter Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy.

However, Ram Charan didn’t have to train much for his role in “Magadheera’ since he had learnt horse-riding in his childhood and it came in handy when he began to work for the re-incarnation epic drama ‘Magadheera’. “It is true that Ram Charan was fascinated with horses from his childhood and was an exponent in horse-riding.

He was pleasantly surprised, when director Rajamouli put a condition that Charan should assure him that he would undergo horse riding training, before narrating the story of Magadheera. Later, Charan lived up to the director’s vision and rest is history ,” says a source, close Chiru family.

However, his colleagues Prabhas, Rana and Anushka had to sweat it out and learn horse-riding the hard way. “Prabhas and Rana got trained under professional horse-riders and even from horse-riding police personnel since army men included horse-riding cops.

During training, Rana accidentally fell off from the horse and was hospitalised with minor injuries,” says a source. Nevertheless, overlooking some injuries and bruises, the action stars Prabhas and Rana impressed viewers with their valiant warrior roles in Bahubali series.

“Horse-riding is not as easy it looks and it requires lot of confidence, commitment and perseverance from the actors,” says director Gunasekar, who cast Anushka in the role of warrior queen in his last release Rudrama Devi.

“Anuskha underwent training since she wanted to breathe-life into the character of Rudrama Devi. Initially, she found it difficult to mount the horse[ and control it, but later felt happy as she could learn a new skill set and surely she looked stunning on horseback,” he adds.

After Balakrishna who impressed in Gautamiputra Satakarni”, now Chiranjeevi will undergo training for a few weeks, to master the art. “Horse riding and sword-wielding are part of the training programme for his role in Uyyalavada,” concludes a source.

By BVS Prakash