When Chay Avoided Acting In Mahanati

Naga Chaitanya Akkineni is a reserved person but of late, he is taking part in a lot of interactions. Interestingly, he took part in Jayammu Nischayammu Ra TV show recently. During the interaction, Chay expressed as to how he tried to avoid playing ANR in Mahanati.

Mahanati is the biopic of legendary actress Savitri, directed by Nag Ashwin. The film had ANR’s character and Chay was approached to play it. However, Chay did not want to do the role initially with many inhibitions. He shared the same during the interaction with Jagapathi Babu on the talk show.

“I could not imagine myself playing my grandfather on the screen and I conveyed the same to the makers that I will not do the film. I was shooting for Savyasachi that time and sporting a beard in the movie. I told Nag Ashwin that I can not do the film as I can not trim the beard owing to continuity issues. However, Nag Ashwin came back later convincing me that he will remove the beard with the help of VFX. It is then I thought that I am lucky to be playing him on the screen and it is my way of showing respect to him,” said Chay.

Naga Chaitanya convinced everyone as ANR in the movie and received positive appreciation from everyone. On the flip side, Sumanth played ANR in the NTR biopic series.