Telugu blockbuster Srimanthudu managed to achieve what Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Saansad Adarsh Gram failed in the twin Telugu speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Thanks to its message that those hailing from the villages should not turn their backs on their native soil, celebs are now jostling to adopt villages.
As the movie delivered big on the box office grossing Rs 100 crores, its hero and producer Mahesh Babu announced that he would adopt his native village of Burripalem, seven kilometres away from Thenali in Guntur district, where his father and super star Krishna was born.
Mahesh said he would help build roads, construct better school buildings, provide potable drinking water and create market linkages to the agricultural produce from the village.
Mahesh, who delivers the subtle message in the film that one has to help his village develop, did not stop with just one village.
Following the request from Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s son and state IT minister K Taraka Rama Rao that he must motivate others by adopting one village in Telangana under the government’s Grama Jyothi programme, Mahesh consented to take over a village in the backward district of Mahabubnagar.
“Very Humbled after receiving a congratulatory call on the success of Srimanthudu from Minister PR&RD @KTRTRS. He suggested I adopt a village from the most backward district of Mahabubnagar as part of their #GramaJyothi initiative. I said YES, more details to be
announced soon..,” Mahesh Babu tweeted.
Interestingly, police officers adopted 523 gram panchayats and district level officers adopted 606.