Overwhelmed by the film Mahanati – the biopic of legendary actor Savitri – Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu felicitated the cast and crew of the film on Saturday and also announced that the government will facilitate in declaring the film as tax-free in the state.
The Chief Minister also showered praise on director Nag Ashwin and the producers for making the film.
Expressing his happiness, he wrote on Twitter, “Congratulated and felicitated #Mahanati team for the tremendous work they put in to make such a beautiful movie.” (sic)
Congratulated and felicitated #Mahanati team for the tremendous work they put in to make such a beautiful movie. pic.twitter.com/4Llk9hoILv
— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) May 26, 2018
He further said that Savitri had achieved the fame of NT Rama Rao – legendary Telugu actor, incidentally the Chief Minister’s father-in-law.
“The struggle of the actor in real life was mirrored in Mahanati. I am also happy that the actor was born in the capital of the state,” he wrote in another tweet.
తెలుగు సినీ జగత్తు, తెలుగు ప్రజల హృదయాల్లో ఎన్టీఆర్ చిరస్థాయిగా ఎలా నిలిచిపోయారో సావిత్రి కూడా తన నటనతో అంతటి ఖ్యాతి గడించారు. ఆ గొప్పనటి జీవితంలో పడిన కష్టాలకు 'మహానటి' సినిమా అద్దం పట్టింది. పైగా సావిత్రి రాజధాని ప్రాంతానికి చెందిన వారు కావడం నాకు సంతోషంగా ఉంది. #Mahanati pic.twitter.com/eA4VxsjVrw
— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) May 26, 2018
Amongst those who were felicitated by the CM were actor Keerthy Suresh, who played Savitri, the film’s director Nag Ashwin, director of photography Dani Sanchez Lopez and the producers Swapna Dutt and Priyanka Dutt.
Mahanati, a bilingual movie, was made in both in Telugu and Tamil, and was a huge hit. It also won critical acclaim for its production value and also for the performance of actor Keerthy Suresh, who was playing a challenging role for the first time in her career.
On the commercial front, the film made $2 million at the US box office. It is believed that Mahanati is the only female-centric film to achieve the feat.
Within 10 days of its release worldwide, the film made a whopping Rs 42 crore in India.
Besides Keerthy Suresh and Dulquer Salman, who played lead roles, there was a galaxy of other stars like Samantha Akkineni, Vijay Deverakonda, Shalini Pandey, Mohan Babu, Rajendra Prasad, Prakash Raj and others, who were part of the film.
The legendary actor Savitri ruled both the Tamil and Telugu movie industries during the peak of her career. She acted in several films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam Kannada and Hindi in her long career. Her debut was with the Telugu flick Samsaram in 1950 and her first-ever Tamil movie as heroine was a couple of years later with Kalyanam Panni Paar. She died on 26 December 1981 after she developed health complications due to her addiction to alcohol.