Bahubali fever grips politicos

Upfront April 28 release, sequel gets a huge publicity

Hyderabad: The kind of political hoopla centreing Bahubali-2, The Conclusion, right now going on in the State politics with the Congress and the ruling TRS equating their leaders to the movie’s lead roles – Bahubali, Kattappa and Bhallaladeva - could even envy the maverick RGV, who is a master of tapping media glare through his saucy and often lewd tweets.

Upfront April 28 release, SS Rajamouli, never in his wildest dreams, would have expected the kind of free publicity to his magnum opus Bahubali-2 with the political heavyweights of Congress and the TRS engaged in a war of words drawing comparisons to the movie characters.

It all started with the Leader of the Opposition K Jana Reddy, while speaking on the sidelines of Assembly on Friday, stated that a Bahubali would come to trounce the TRS party and its chief K Chandrasekhar Rao at the hustings to ensure the victory of the Congress.

This, he said in reply to the TRS leaders’ sarcasm that Rahul Gandhi is a proven iron leg and the Congress direly needs his campaigning in Telangana.

This triggered a series of comments from either side of the ruling and Opposition party leaders.
“Congress is Amarendra Bahubali (Prabhas) and KCR is Kattappa (Satyaraj), while drawing a similarity between KCR and Kattappa, who backstabs the hero in the movie,” DK Aruna said, in a veiled attack against the TRS chief that he had betrayed the Congress after the formation of Telangana.

Now the time has come for the Bahubali-2 to dictate the terms, she said, hoping that someone in her party would don the hero role and finish off the TRS’ rule.

Moving a step ahead, TPCC Working President Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said that KCR is Bhallaladeva, the villain (Rana). He refused to equate KCR with Kattappa as the latter was loyal to his king. Congress is the Bahubali, he added.

Joining the debate was TRS Nizamabad MP K Kavitha on Saturday. She said: “KCR is not just party’s Bahubali but also the entirety of Telangana State.

Stating that Jana Reddy was no exception to the Bahubali mania that gripped people world over, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said that every leader in the party has the might of Bahubali to romp Congress home in the next elections.