The celebrated saga behind Legend award
At last, Chiranjeevi was handed over the brand new title of Legend by Amitabh Bachchan during the 54th Fair One Filmfare Awards function held at HICC on the 4th of August.
However, the film nagar commentary circles are churning a tale of a different hue. Sometime ago, the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Telugu cinema were held at the same venue. Then also Chiranjeevi was honoured with the award of Legend. Some others were awarded Celebrity titles. But, Mohan Babu refused to accept the award of Legend and openly questioned the basis to differentiate between Legend and Celebrity. He alleged that senior artistes were insulted by these ad hoc gestures. Subsequently, Chiranjeevi consigned the award to the Time Capsule. Perhaps, he might have apprehended that the criticism was directed against him. There was a lot of buzz on this incident for a long time in the film circles.
Though Chiranjeevi was honoured as Legend by an independent and well-known all India Film magazine, the commentators insist that this award was wantonly given. They cite several reasons in support of their assertion. K.S.Rama Rao, the then convenor of Vajrothsavam Committee handed over the first Filmfare award of the night, which, they say, is too much of a coincidence to be a mere coincidence. Then, Krishnam Raju was given the life time achievement award. Moreover, Filmfare instituted this Legend award for the first time and also awarded it to Malayalam super star Mammooty, so that, the critics say, no one would think that only Chiranjeevi was given the Legend award. Can anyone, including Filmfare, know the real celebrated saga behind the actual award story?
