Balakrishna's Comments Spark Akkineni Vs Nandamuri War: The Akkineni Heirs Respond

Nandamuri Balakrishna takes potshots at veteran actors during the ‘Veera Simha Reddy’ success meet, sparks trolling

Nandamuri Balakrishna was celebrating the success of his movie Veera Simha Reddy which was released during Sankranti this year, when his comments on veteran actors and wish for competition landed him in hot waters with the netizens. The actor is known for making crude remarks and has often been the subject of online debates because of the same. 

Talking about his father, late actor Sr NTR, Balayya said, “My father, Sr NTR had some contemporaries, Ranga Rao (SV Ranga Rao), Akkineni, Thokkineni, and some others...” ‘Thokkineni’, Netizens believe, is a jab at Akkineni Nageswara Rao, equating the late actor to something worthless. Balakrishna invited criticism from media and fans for undermining some of the biggest actors and contemporaries of NTR from the Telugu Film Industry. Some fans of the Akhanda actor defended him, calling his words a slip of the tongue and not an intentional remark. #MentalBalakrishna started trending on Twitter, following the press meet, with netizens sharing clips from Balakrishna’s speech and criticising him for his remarks. Check out the Tweets below:

In the same event, Balakrishna spoke about the need for healthy competition, “A healthy competition is always necessary. Only in the existence of tough competition will we understand who we are. We can’t just be proud of ourselves. We have to compete and make ourselves better after rectifying our mistakes.” 

Twitteratti is claiming that he insisted on a Sankranti release for ‘Veera Simha Reddy’ to satisfy his need for competition. The movie was originally slated to release in December 2022. However, it was released on January 12, 2022, a day before Chiranjeevi-Ravi Teja’s Waltair Veerayya. Check out their Tweets here:

While it is common for movies of big stars to clash at the box office during Sankranti, this year’s releases came as a surprise to audiences because both movies are produced by Mythri Movie Makers. Production houses rarely release movies on the same day, instead spacing them out across the year to guarantee viewership for all its movies, so Mythri releasing two of the biggest movies of the year one day apart came as surprising news to audiences. 

Today, January 24, Naga Chaitanya and Akhil Akkineni, the grandsons of actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao reacted to the controversy, saying disrespecting acting legends like SV Ranga Rao and ANR is like degrading ourselves. See their tweets here:

Sr NTR and ANR were initially best friends who had a falling apart later in their life. The feud between the two families has been continuing ever since, and Balakrishna's latest comments added fuel to the fire.