Shoban Babu - Andhra Andagadu
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Srinivas N
(Mumbai, India)
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Shoban Babu - Andhra Andagadu
India is Hindi and Hindi is India. That seems to be the misconception of everyone. Recently, when I was speaking to an American friend of mine about a Telugu movie, she exclaimed “I love bollywood!!” I had to tell her that the movie I was talking about was NOT bollywood and a Telugu movie. I almost used the word “regional” but I hated to say that as it felt like a downgraded product, whereas these “regional” films have consistently produced better quality movies throughout the history of Indian Cinema than the so called “National Cinema”.
So it comes as no surprise when one of the greatest actors of Indian film industry, Shoban Babu passed away couple of days back.
Shoban Babu was also known as the “Andhra Andagadu”, The handsome Andhra! He was the top romantic hero of the 60’s, 70’s and the 80’s.
He won many state and central government awards for his brilliant work in some of the most memorable movies in the Telugu cinema such as “Karthika Deepam”, “Manushulu Maarali”, “Jeevana Jyothi”, “Soggadu” and many more!
Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao became Shoban Babu with “Bhakta Sabari” but his other movie “Daivabalam” released first. When NTR and ANR were ruling the Telugu Cinema, Shoban Babu stood out due to his style, looks & awesome dialogue delivery.
Even though I was a fan of NTR and Chiranjeevi in the 80’s, I never missed any Shoban Babu cinema as there was some kind of quality in him that makes you emotionally connected to all the characters he played. I can guarantee that in any Shoban Babu film, there will be an instant connection with his character and you feel his pain and happiness.
These days, almost every film has one hero and two heroines but does anyone know Shoban Babu pioneered this two heroine formula?
Well, there is onething not many know and would be surprised to hear about. Shoban Babu was the ex-husband of Tamil Nadu ex-Chief Minister and former heroine J.Jayalalitha.
When I heard the news of his demise, more than the shock, it was a sad feeling of something connected to your past is slowly slipping away and the memories of your younger days in which Shoban Babu too was a part of.
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India is Hindi and Hindi is India. That seems to be the misconception of everyone
it is not misconception
it is truth
i had just realized
before reading this statement of yours
i never thought of telgu or bangla or any other cinema separately
from your statements
it appears like
bollywood is trying to dominate the regional cinema
as a hindi speaking citizen of india
and a bollywood lover
i assure you
we have no such intentions
you be happy
and if you feel that your existence is threatened
in any sense
than get lost
we can survive without you
definitely don’t need you and your cinema
we never try to force that we are majority
and
we are not ready to see you dance, just because you are minority
>:p
i know its polite to talk nice about someone who has just died but “Shoban Babu one of the greatest actor” !!! come on you are taking it way too far .
at best he is more like a telugu version of jeetendra or even a vinod mehra same mannerisms similar roles/movies .
more than his acting i remember this funny wig with a bit of buffo in front which shobhan babu used to wear in all his movies!
anyway RIP shobhan babu
Whoa Vishrant,
calm down buddy!! talk about being rude!! I dont think Shobhan babu is a great actor but like Morph said he is a telugu version of Jeetendra. But I really dont appreciate your tone regarding film industry other than so called Bollywood. Do you know that every other movie churned out by the bollywood is a remake of a telugu, tamil or malayalam movie? dont get me wrong..i love hindi movies and probably watch more of them than telugu or tamil movies. But this whole attitude about non-hindi movies is insulting. I dont mean to generalize but this is the very typical attitude of a north-indian who thinks everyone down south is a ‘madrasi’ and does not realize there are actually 4 different states there that really puts me off. I hope you realize the essence of our country is our diversity and thats what makes us unique. I think that every India should be proud of it instead of degrading it.
leave him alone srishti,
the guy ‘ll never be able to understand. Fortunately there are sensible people in india who take your point rightly. Sometimes there is such huge ignorance, its overwhelmimg.
=3
….!!typical attitude of a north-indian who thinks everyone down south is a
Shoban Babu garu, well may not be a great actor , but he was decent and did do just to kind of roles that were offered to him , At a time when movies were over the top , He was more sensible and he had a certian style more polished than the rest of the actors of that time .He was had a flat tummy too. Now thats a feat in Telugu dom in those days. He was nice looking in his own way. Enjoyed he kind of movies too.
okay krishn,
r u being a wise guy????? at least you dont see any southie calling everyone from north as punjabi!!! remember the scene with the andhra girl from ‘chak de india’??
@ shrishti
i have nothing against even myself
how could i have anything against anything
if you are younger than me
than probably i have spend more time on the trains of indian railway than you were awake, including south of india.
my reaction
i got the impression that
author of the article want to put us in back foot, by mentioning the fact about hindi-india-bollywood.
i don’t have majority complex
i am not willing to suffer minority complex.
@};-
Vishrant looks like a loser
:-$
i agree wid the author- srinivas.as a hindi speaking indian,i believe seriously shoban babu is such a gr8 n awsome actor.he can never b compared wid anyone like vinod n jeetendra.plz dont compare him wid anyone.his movies are such a a fantastic one that make us involve in every situation of the film so seriously.”SHOBAN BABU IS A LEGAND”.During those days Sobhanbabu is the only stylish star. Even if he wears a T-shirt or if he wears a suit, it is perfect fit for him. It is Sobhanbabu who used to wear goggles in song sequ.hez perfectly a gr8 diciplaned and handsome hero whom History has to wait for thousands of yrs for an other soban babu to take birth ,very discilplined person,gr8 loss 2 industry.he n hez dailouge delivery was simply superb.
I MISS HIM VERY MUCH…….:x
Srinivas, i am also a fellow Gult like u. But regardign Shoban Babu, i have mixed feelings. He was brilliant in some of his early movies like “Balipeetam”,”Manushulu Marali”,”Sharada”,”Veerabhimanyu”, “Manavudu Danavudu” to name a few, but in his later movies he became a caricature, repeating the same act again and again. He did make a comeback with some good roles in movies like “Doshi Nirdoshi”,”Balaramakrishnulu” and “Sarpayagam”. In fact i liked his performance in Balaramakrishnulu which had a totally negative tone to it. But his last movies to act as a hero opposite much younger heroines was a big time fiasco.
Another interesting thing, while most of his Telugu movies were succesfully remade in Bollywood, his remakes of succesful Bollywood movies like Aradhana( Kannavari Kalalu), Pyaasa( Mallepoovu), Kasme Vaade( Chesina Basalu) were all big time duds.
RIP for Shoban Babu Garu.He was such as versatile actor,one of the best Indian film Industry has produced.As a Proud Indian, I have nothing against ‘North Indians’ in general.But whenever fools like Vishrant talk nonsense out of ignorance,it is the duty of every patriotic Indian to teach people like him some History lessons.
If Vishrant beleives that ‘India is Hindi and Hindi is India’, then he is ignorantly leaving out all the majority-Non Hindi population out of his India defination.
1.The roots of Indian civilization itself is in Dravidian (South Indian) Indus Valley Civilization !
2.When Hinduism was almost dead from the onslaught of Buddhism,it was a South Indian Monk Adi Sankara who revived Hinduism by travelling all over the country and establishing the Four Matts in the four corners of the world.
2.Again,when entire North India came under foreign Muslim invader’s rule and Hinduism was almost about to vanish, it was again South India which withstood Muslim invasions and help protect Indian Culture. The Andhra Vijayanagara Empire stood as a bulkwark againt foreign muslim invasions close to more than 300 years and prevented the fall of South India and Indian Culture to foreign Muslim Invaders.
3.If today Indian culture is widespread in all of South East Asia and Indian Ocean Region, it is thanks to South Indians who sent missions to every country in Asia to spread Hinduism.
4.It was South Indian Buddhist Monks likewise who sent missions to various East Asian countries to spread Buddhism and one such mission went to china and established the famous shoalin temple among other things.
5.Throughout India’s history there are only Two empire which spread beyond Indian Subcontinent.One is the Mauryan Empire(centered in Eastern India in modern day Bihar) and the other, The Cholan Empire (centered around Southern India in modern day Tamil Nadu).
5.The Cholan Empire was India’s only ‘Imperial’ Empire in true sense.The Cholans were the first to have a strong Navy for imperial missions and sent marine expedentionery forces to occupy foreign lands, establish Indian colonies and spread Indian culture to native population.The ‘Indian Ocean’ got confirmed among other reasons because of the domination of the Indian Cholan Imperial Navy had on those seas !
6.Even in Indian economic history,South Indian contribution is hardly one to ignore.The Four Southern States alone combined contribute 30% of India’s GDP while the rest of 27 Indian states contribute 70%.
7.India’s scientific community is 75% South Indian.
8.While North Indian prime ministers who ruled India for much of the time after Independence dragged India down, it took a South Indian Prime Minister Narashimha Rao to reform the Indian economy and spurt the economic growth.
My post is not against any North Indian in general but when people like Visharnt really beleive in ignorant statements like ‘India is Hindi and Hindi is India’, they are simply excluding all the magnificent non-Hindi contributions to Indian civilization than the North Indians.
Infact Hindi is the major obstecle for national integration.Hindi was never intended to be the national language,it never was one.Hindi is just a regional language in India like other languages.Only 40% of Indians speak Hindi.How can it be a national language ? If Hindi can be a national language, then so can be Telugu which is spoken by 32% of Indians ! Sanskrit is the true national language of India.When India got its independence, Sanskrit was almost declared as the national language. But Hindi chuvanists and muslim fundamentalists both joined hands and made sure that Sanskrit was not the national language of India.
I never understod this north indian mentality to downplay South Indian contributions are ignored.Since we are talking about films,lets talk about them.India has until now has four great directors out of which two are from the south(Satyagit Ray from the east,Raj Kapoor from the north and Maniratnam and Adoor Gopalakrishnan from the south).In terms of international quality cinema, bollywood is a joke.More than 80% awards which Indian films received are either to South Indian movies or to Bengali movies.Bollywood is more into running around trees type of songs or gaudy wedding movies.Ofcourse not all ‘bollywood’ movies are like that,but majority of them are !
Only a South Indian director can make a movie like ‘Hey Ram’ or ‘Bombay’ or ‘Roja’.Not suprisingly all these movies are duds in north indian box office.North indians are simply not intellectually advanced enough to appreciate movies like ‘Hey Ram’. They are more than content with their ‘dilwane dulhaniya whatever ‘kind of movies .
I am not even talking about the all the beautiful ‘bollywood’ heroines who are actually South Indian heroines.Whether it was Vijayantimala(Tamil)in 60s or Waheeda Rahman(Andhra)in 60s,Rekha(Tamil)in 70s or Sridevi(Tamil) in 80s or Jayapradha(Andhra) in 70s and 80s or ShilpaShetty(Kannada)in 90s or Tabu(Andhra) in 2000s.
Many ‘North Indians’ dont even know that ‘bollywood’ heroine and the most beautiful women in India Aishwariya Rai is a South Indian born in Mangalore,Karnataka to Kannada parents.
The reason i am telling all these things is not to show that South Indians are superior to North Indians,but just to inform our ‘North Indian’ countrymen that many people beyond the vindhyas are awfully ignorant about the South even though South India made far more contributions to Mother India than our confused Northern counterparts !
“So it comes as no surprise when one of the greatest actors of Indian film industry, Shoban Babu passed away couple of days back.” - what has the death of Shoban babu to do with the famous North Indian-South Indian divide we so “fondly” talk about? Should it (the news of the death) come as a surprise or should it not?
I am glad this place is turning into Rediff.
@ kiran -
please refrain from cultural bashing. Tejas is right. You have rediff for that.
@Kiran
Saying that India till now has produced only 4 great directors is an insult to Indian cinema!!!