Karan Johar and Rajamouli have united the Indian film industry, says Jr NTR

The pre-release event of 'Brahmastra' which was supposed to be held in Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad on Friday was cancelled by the Hyderabad police due to security reasons and the team had no other alternative but to shift the stage to a famous hotel in Hyderabad the same day at 9.30 pm - Jyothi Venkatesh

Jr NTR was the chief guest at the event, which was also graced by Karan Johar, SS Rajamouli, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt.

Explaining the reasons why the event was cancelled, Rajamouli explained, ''We planned a big surprise in Ramoji Film City. The team has been working very hard for the last two weeks.

I think Karan Johar sir did something wrong while performing Ganesh's pooja. (Smiling). We got clearance from the police commissioner's office 5 days ago. The authorities had checked all and suggested some adjustments.

They said everything was good. Now, they said they can’t send a police force due to Ganesh's immersion. ''

It all started back in 2015 when Karan Johar came on board as a presenter for the first instalment of SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali series. In those times, the Hindi audience hardly ever went to theatres to watch a South film but Baahubali managed to achieve the unthinkable and initiated a welcome change.

Cut to 2022, the two biggest grossers in the Hindi belt are films from down South, KGF: Chapter 2 and RRR. It is now evident that the terms 'Hindi film' and 'South film' have merged to become 'Indian film' and the credit for it, as per Jr NTR, goes to Karan and Rajamouli.

The RRR actor, who was supposed to arrive as the chief guest at a recent Brahmastra Part One: Shiva event, said, “Karan Johar and Rajamouli have united the Indian film industry! Let us hope that Karan sir achieves yet another milestone with this movie." For the unversed, Rajamouli is presenting Karan-backed Brahmastra Part One: Shiva in the South.

Further, Jr NTR heaped praise on Ranbir Kapoor for his acting prowess. “I have liked many actors of the Indian film industry. But very few of them have left a mark on me.

I really enjoy Amitabh Bachchan sir's intensity in every film, be it his eyes, his voice, the way he stood etc. And after Amit ji, the actor I connect to is Ranbir. Every film of his has inspired me as an actor,” he said.

The 39-year-old actor continued, “My most favourite film of his is Rockstar. The intensity in his performance left a huge mark on me. He inspires me as an actor. It's nice to share the stage with him, that too, in my hometown Hyderabad. It gives me immense pleasure to be a part of Brahmastra's promotions. I would like to thank Rajamouli Garu for this opportunity.``

Revealing the most surprising factor, Rajamouli said, ''In Brahmastra, Ranbir Kapoor has the amazing power of throwing fire from his hands, and we’ve seen it in the fantastic trailer. We also had big plans to show it live.

When Ranbir does it, there would be a plan to set fireworks going up everywhere. Then, Ranbir asks Tarak to show his power. Ranbir learns a famous dialogue from Tarak’s film Aadi. Ranbir asks Tarak ‘Thoda kottu chinna’.

Then, we planned that the fire would be generated if NTR did. I wanted to sit in the middle of the crowd and enjoy seeing it. But it couldn’t happen. We will show it in Brahmastra success meet for sure.''

Heaping praise on Karan Johar, Rajamouli said, ''There is a huge difference between me and Karan Johar in terms of filmmaking and the genre of films. I love him so much because of his immense love for movies.

Five years ago, he said that he was doing the Brahmastra with Ayan Mukerji. He asked me to listen to the story. I agreed to it out of respect for Karan Johar garu.

When we were children, we used to write Brahmastra, Agneyastra, Varunastra, and Vishnastra on thin bamboo sticks and play with them. It was a childhood fantasy.

When Ayan Mukherjee narrated the story of Brahmastra, I remembered all my childhood fantasy stuff. I was thinking about how to create so many weapons, was amazed to hear what the superheroes who use them should be like and how their emotions should be.''