Ali the world’s a stage for him

Press meets, audio launches, no matter what the event is, veteran comedian and hero Ali never fails to bring the house down with his antics and chances are that he can take you by surprise on more than multiple occasions. Dressed in a black suit presented to him by his good old friend Pawan Kalyan, the actor who has carved a niche for himself with a wide variety of roles that he essayed in his 35-year long career, gets talking about his first big break ‘Yamaleela’, his latest venture as a hero ‘Alibaba Okkade Donga’ and his friendship with the Power Star.

Remembering how he landed the role of ‘Yamaleela’, he says it’s been two decades since the muhurat of the fantasy drama took place. “It was conceived with Mahesh Babu in mind but when Krishna garu insisted that his son’s foray would be after three years, director Krishna Reddy and producer Atchi Reddy considered me. They asked me to meet them and when I met them, they offered me a cheque. After signing the agreement, they said they’ve roped me for ‘Yamaleela’. I thought they were joking but they were adamant. They’ve paid Rs 50,000 for ‘Yamaleela’ and Rs 1 lakh for ‘Ghatotkachudu’,” he smiles, adding, “The rest is history. I never realised that I would last this long.”

About his current film which revolves around a burglary, he says, “I play a character who comes to Hyderabad to realise his dream of becoming a police inspector and marry off his sister, but fate has other plans and he sees himself caught in the burglary. It is a like a typical Vamsi film on the lines of ‘April 1 Vidudala’. I don’t want it to run like ‘Yamaleela,’ but hope people will have a good time viewing it.”

On his equation with Pawan Kalyan, he says that he is good friends with Pawan from Madras days. “I used to drop by Annaya Chiranjeevi’s house often and met Pawan for the first time there. While I couldn’t share screen space with him in his debut flick ‘Akkada Ammayi Ikkada Abbai’, I later featured in ‘Gokulamlo Seetha’ and ‘Suswagatham’. But the turning point in our friendship can be attributed to ‘Toli Prema’. We spent considerable time on sets discussing scenes and from then, there was no looking back. Barring two movies, I featured in all of his other movies,” he says, while adding, “He is extremely emotional about his family and I guess he heard the same about me, resulting in both bonding big time.”

While he is playing cards close to his chest when asked about his political entry, he is happy that he is doing something to the society through his foundation – Mohammad Basha Charitable Trust- named after his late father. Besides signing cheques for the laying of borewells across Rajahmundry, his hometown, the actor is also donating a chunk of money for visually impaired children every year through his foundation.

On the filmi front, he says he has interesting characters in films like ‘Rabhasa’, ‘Gabbar Singh 2’ and ‘Oka Laila Kosam’ up next.