Victory Venkatesh in a great form

He began his career as a student rebel with ‘Kaliyuga Paandavulu’ many moons ago. At a time when Chiranjeevi's action films and peer Nagarjuna's style flicks were becoming a rage, Venkatesh gave one super hit after another, in stories that were remakes from Tamil (‘Chanti’, ‘Chinna Raayudu’ were both remade from ‘Chinna Thambi’ and ‘Chinna Gounder’).


His victory in later years found its safety net in remakes from family subjects and soft romances, and it was only with ‘Gharshana’, the remake of ‘Kakka Kakka’, that Venki, found himself batting a second innings that was to be as charming as the super star himself. Right now, Venki is the most bankable star in Telugu. Though relying more on remakes, Venki has never stuck to do just one type of role and toys between romance, drama and action and voila, he gave a hat trick spate of hits these last three years in ‘Lakshmi’, ‘Aadavari Maatalaku Ardhale Verule’ and ‘Tulasi’.


His lucky mascot in ‘Lakshmi’ and ‘Tulasi’ was the lovely. Nayantara and anyone who saw Aadavari...would vouch for Venki’s timing in the comedy scenes, especially his tone of delivering his lines has much to do with the film’s success in Telugu. This Vivekananda College graduate from Chennai is as fluent in Tamil as he is in Telugu.


Touted as a producer's hero, Venki's movies are always made well within budgets. Venki's latest film is ‘Chintakalaya Ravi’ and here the actor has glamour queens Anushka and Mamta Mohandas to match him in his duets and histrionics.