Bharat Ratna equal to my father's toenail: Nandamuri Balakrishna

Hyderabad: Tollywood actor and politician Nandamuri Balakrishna’s remarks on Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman and Bharat Ratna have stoked controversy.

The TDP leader, during an interview with a Telugu news channel on Wednesday, said that Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award is equal to the ‘toenail’ of his father, late actor-politician NT Rama Rao.

Opining that no award can compensate for the contribution of his family to Telugu cinema, the actor said, “I feel that Bharat Ratna is equal to my father’s toenail. No award can compensate for the contribution of my family to Tollywood. So, only the awards should feel bad, not my family or my father. It is the honour and privilege of people who would offer him the award and not of Sr NTR. He is more than a Bharat Ratna.”

Further he went on to say that he is unaware of who AR Rahman is even though he might have won an Oscar. “I do not know who AR Rahman is. He won an Oscar and I do not even know who he is. He gives a hit once in a decade,” Nandamuri told ANI.

Soon after his remarks went viral on social media, a Twitter war erupted with Rahman fans posting memes and hashtags targetting Balakrishna. With this, #whoisbalakrishna started trending on Twitter.

Fans of Balakrishna tweeted in his defense, saying he was the epitome of screen presence, the God of masses and one of the very few all-rounders ever.