Only Hindi films were considered as Indian cinema

New Delhi: Actor Chiranjivi, at a press event for his upcoming film 'Acharya', recalled the time when he felt 'insulted' when he noticed the absence of South actors' photos at a government event after he was honoured with the Nargis Dutt award.

The story goes back to the year 1989 when he was invited to high tea by the government in Delhi after his movie 'Rudraveeni' was set to be honoured with the Nargis Dutt award. 

While he was there, he had noticed a wall which paid tribute to the icons of Indian cinema. However, he was surprised when he noticed a lack of South actors in the wall of tribute which included cinema's greatest such as Prithviraj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, etc. He recalled that he could only see photos of MGR, and Prem Nazir which were separately titled as South films. 

He expressed that he felt humiliated and insulted when he observed this. "I felt very humiliated at that moment. It was like an insult," he said.

Chiranjeevi didn't like the fact that only Hindi cinema was considered to be Indian cinema and other language cinema was considered to be 'regional films'. 

Speaking about the same, he said that SS Rajamouli's 'Bahubaali' was a transformative film as it broke the barrier between mainstream Indian cinema and so-called 'regional films'.