Ali’s been an integral part of Telugu film comedy realm for four decades. Starting as a child artiste, he acted in as many as 1000 films including 100 films in other languages, and played hero in 52. After making his presence felt at live stage shows as anchor-compere, Ali made a permanent mark as a television host with his successful show Ali tho saradaaga . He feels he gained so much from the industry and hence, it’s time to pay back. He donates 25% of every movie or a television assignment that he has assiduously earns to a Trust he had named after his father. He shares the plight of the workers of the film unit — be it a costume designer, light man or a carpenter, “With the little money they get, it’s tough for them to educate their children and get them married. Because they aren’t educated they are doing these odd jobs and they definitely don’t want their children to follow suit. When they come to me with their problems, I don’t hand over money. Instead I make sure it’s transferred into their accounts. I have got many girls married and I feel it is punyam .”
Ali left Rajamundry when he was eight years old; ever since, the film industry has become his school, college and university, he shares. He had seen and worked with veterans and learnt lessons by observation. “Only humility can take you places. These are the days when if 10 out of 100 are bad, people term the rest 90 as equally bad.”
Tracing his journey further, Ali says, getting into the industry as a child artiste wasn’t too hard but coming back as an adult was tough. Despite being successful in his formative years,there was a frustrating gap. He shares, “You are neither small nor big, there are no opportunities. There is a dilemma in choosing options — do I quit, do I study? It happens with girls too, even Sridevi had five years gap before she turned heroine. If I go back home in the village, I would definitely have to face sarcastic comments from people, so I decided to stay back. I would meet directors and tell them to remember and give me roles. I would take small gifts to family, friends and relatives whenever I’d go back to my village and they would all feel happy and bless me. Those blessings got me here. Our parents are living gods and I find my jannat under my mother’s feet. In my absence, my sisters take care of my mother and I never say no to them.”
Directors like Jandhyala, Raviraja Pinisetty, Satya Reddy, Raghavendra Rao, SV Krishna Reddy, Puri Jagannadh, Vinayak and Rajamouli were instrumental in his success. Says Ali, “A comedian’s career span is five or 10 years. I am lucky to have worked with so many distinguished actors and their grandsons. Story and content-wise too I got the best.. I am lucky I got roles where I worked for just seven days and made equal impact with the hero who worked for 70 days. If a film works, you get more offers, appreciation and the latter is like oxygen. We survive on that.”
Ali admits missing his senior colleagues, especially when he sees Yevadigola Vadidhi on television. At least eight people associated with it, including its director, are no more.
On the criticism over his distasteful remarks at audio functions as an anchor, Ali dismisses it by saying, “It is the media, they twist and hype it. Most of the times they resort to blackmail. If you attend an interview in one channel and skip another channel, they come up with strange news and headlines.” Nevertheless, Ali is happy he had achieved 90% of his life goals, “My only wish left is to construct five hospitals in five districts and give free medication for the poor.”
Ali is proud of his children — his eldest son is in medical college and a seven-year-old daughter whom he says is “a copy of me. She’s enamoured seeing fans taking my autograph and selfies. So now she’s decided to become an actor. Who are we to decide, yela rasipetti unte ala avuthundi .”
