Chiranjeevi's reel friends turn real foes

They romanced Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi in reel life, but have been spitting venom on him in real life.

Actresses-turned-politicians Vijaya Santhi and R K Roja are now apparently leaving no occasion to lash out at Chiranjeevi, who launched his Praja Rajyam Party last month.

Vijaya Santhi paired with Chiranjeevi in as many as 18 films, the maximum any heroine has done with him, while Roja starred in two films opposite the Telugu megastar.

After having sailed with the Bharatiya Janata Party for many years, Vijaya Santhi floated her own political outfit Talli Telangana Party a couple of years ago espousing the separate statehood cause.

Roja is now heading Telugu Mahila, the womens wing of the Telugu Desam Party. Both have been taking a dig at Chiranjeevi ever since he jumped into active politics by launching his own party.

"How can one expect a man, who has done nothing for the welfare of the film industry workers, to work for the welfare of the people at large," wondered Roja, firing her first salvo at Chiranjeevi soon after he formally made his political arangetram.

Vijaya Santhi, on the other hand, took a dig at the megastar for failing to come out with a clear stand on the Telangana issue. "He is trying to hoodwink people on Telangana," she had said.

After Chiranjeevi undertook his first mass contact programme by meeting handloom weavers in Sircilla on Saturday, Roja unleashed a fresh round of attack on the former by dubbing the trip as a mere vote-garnering exercise.

"Chiranjeevi has never aided people in times of natural disasters like tsunami, cyclones or bomb blasts. He's now shedding crocodile tears over the plight of weavers," Roja said addressing a gathering of Telugu Yuvatha workers and IT professionals at the TDP office on Sunday.

Around the same time, Vijaya Santhi too was making snide remarks against the Praja Rajyam Party chief saying he is a rank junior to me in politics. "Don't compare me to him," she said.

"People of Telangana would not trust Chiranjeevi's words as he lacks sincerity," she said and cautioned him not to take people of the region for granted.

While verbal attacks from other political leaders are obvious, the Praja Rajyam party leader is also having to contend with the diatribe from his erstwhile colleagues in the film industry.

Besides Roja and Vijaya Santhi, notable Chiranjeevi critics in the film industry are actor Rajasekhar and his actress-turned-director wife Jeevita and producer Tammareddi Bharadwaja.

Bharadwaja produced two films with Chiranjeevi in his initial years as an actor, while Rajasekhar did a cameo in a Chiranjeevi film. Rajasekhar and Jeevita have recently joined the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, for now, the Praja Rajyam camp is maintaining a calculated silence on the criticism.