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Lakshmi Manchu, who recently made headlines for allegedly calling her father Mohan Babu a “roadblock” in her career, spoke to the indianexpress.com and denied making any such remarks. Lakshmi, who has been working as an actor since childhood, spoke about the hardships she had to go through despite her dad being a superstar. She said that her statement was twisted. “I love him and he loves me”, she said.
The Yakshini star said, “That was such a wrong headline, If you look at the rest of the interview, there was nothing like the headline. The journalist did a great job in getting eyeballs onto his article, but we are nobody without my dad, and he will always be my first and my ultimate hero… What I spoke doesn’t takes that away. Yes, that’s the way the society is today.” Lakshmi said that she would be doing a disservice to the women who’ve paved the path for her, and the women who will follow in her footsteps, if she doesn’t speak up when she feels she must. “Yes, there is trouble, it is tough, but the tough gets you going,” she said.
Talking about her dad, and how he never let his stardom affect his parenting, Lakshmi said, “I didn’t know my dad was a famous man until my 10th grade. We all lived in Chennai, we went to preview theatres, we never went to regular theatres… It was in my 11th grade that I realised my dad is a superstar. They were all like, ‘She is Mohan Babu’s daughter’. I was like, ‘Why is this such a big deal?’ And that’s the beauty of my father, he never brought home that he is a superstar.”
“He was a strict dad, he made sure we maintained a handwriting book, before he went to shooting he would write how many pages we had to finish even in summer holidays. So if my dad wasn’t an actor, I think he should have been in the military,” she added.
After working as a child actor, she later travelled to the United States for work. She said that it wasn’t easy for her to convince her superstar dad and her family to accept her career choices. She credited her mother for supporting her, also clarifying that her dad wasn’t against her choices, but was worried for her.
“It was my mom. I think even when I was in my 20s, she knew, but even she was scared that how people will see it. It was not just about my dad, it was also about how the society will perceive us. There were other star kids too who were wanting to get into acting, and receiving severe backlash from the public. So that was definitely in my dad’s mind… And if it wasn’t for my mom, I don’t think I would have ever found that strength”, Manchu recalled.
She said that the industry has changed in the last few years. She cited the example of her brother’s kids, as well as Mahesh Babu and Namrata Shirodkar’s daughter. She said, “I think this has completely changed with our generation. My brother’s kids, one of them wants to be a singer, his son, who is six-year-old, is acting in a movie. That is completely changed this generation. Also, you have to know Mahesh Babu’s wife is Namrata Shirodkar, who is from Bollywood, so that has had an influence in terms of making them understand. I don’t know if it was a South Indian mother what it would have been. It’s so hard. In our subconscious mind only, we have to make sure we are not spotted outside. It was a very close knit community when we were in Chennai. Now, it’s so different and open.”
A few days ago, in an interview with Free Press Journal, Lakshmi Manchu was asked about the ‘roadblocks’ she experienced while moving to Mumbai from Hyderabad. She said, “There was only one roadblock, my family. They didn’t let me move for the longest time. We are a very close-knit family. They told me, ‘Why do you have to be a small fish in a big pond?’ They had their own qualms. I used to stay at my best friend Rakul Preet’s house. She kept insisting that I move to Mumbai.”
Describing herself as a ‘victim of patriarchy’, she added, “Men down South aren’t okay with heroes’ sisters or daughters being actresses. They step back from casting people like us. Prakash introduced me to the movies, but my dad and his dad tried to get this idea out of our heads.”
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