Films play an important role indeed in making a language mainstream, popularising various dialects, slangs and styles among the masses. It was a pleasant sight to see the Telugu film industry turning up in full strength to showcase their love for Telugu and speak of how the language has grown in the nine decades of Telugu cinema in the ongoing World Telugu Conference. It was right that Rajendra Prasad pointed out, “I have never seen so many people from our fraternity together for an event recently , it’s a pleasant sight for me too.” Nandini Reddy, Vamsi Paidipally and Harish Shankar came up with their music videos depicting the universality of Telangana rituals and culture besides assuming charge of the proceedings for the cultural events through the day. Families of late actors Kantha Rao, Prabhakar Reddy and Srihari were felicitated as well.
Jamuna
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The Telugu mahasabhalu is an important event to remind us of our mother tongue that it is spoken worldwide now. Writers from Telangana have made a tremendous contribution to my career; how can I forget C Narayana Reddy who started his career with Nannu Dochukunduvate (Gulebakavali Katha). The respect to the families of Prabhakar Rao and Kantha Rao is fitting.
Chiranjeevi
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I feel happy to be a part of an event of this stature. That we have politicians who share an equal love for literature is a gift to the Telugu community. If I were to define what's the meaning of a mother tongue, it's the first response in our mind, what we think and speak as we're sleep. It's unfortunate that Telugusoften speak in English when theymeet, I almost did that during KTR'sinvitation for this event. He cheekily reminded of speaking in 'Telugu' then.
Balakrishna
Though separated by two states, the brotherhood between people hasn't changed at all, they still continue to call NTR-'anna' with fondness. I was born in Chennai but I'd spent my entire childhood in Hyderabad. This is land where people know how to love and confront with equal ease. I'm also reminded of my Komaram Bheem avatar in my film Parama Veera Chakra. It's high time to preserve our roots, sadly it's also a time where people can't speak Telugu for 3 minutes without using a foreign word.
Krishna
It was in my first few films that I played the role of Krishna Devaraya, who shared great love for Telugu despite his mother tongue being Kannada. Telugu is a language that a poet like Subramanya Bharathi was extremely fond of. I owe my 300-odd film career to Telugu literature and its various writers.
Rajendra Prasad
Mom teaches us mother tongue when we are infants, we only part with it as we die. It is with immense pleasure that I recollect that I was felicitated by Kaloji in Warangal, that P V Narasimha Rao told 'I am a fan of yours' besides C Narayana Reddy bestowing me with the 'Nata kireeti' title.