Rajesh had it Coming!

Preamble: During Blogchatter's A2Z challenge during the month of April 2024, I am writing mini stories on various subjects and characters on each day of the month except on Sundays. The name of the protagonist shall begin with the alphabet assigned for the day.  

Rajesh Kumar was known for his sense of humour right from childhood. After all, his birth place was Tenali, in Guntur district Andhra Pradesh .Tenali is famous for the legendary figure of  Tenali Ramakrishna , a poet and advisor in the court of Emperor Krishna Devaraya of the Vijayanagara empire. The town's reputation for humour is tied to the tales of cleverness and quick wit of Tenali Ramakrishna. 

Rajesh studied at the Hindu college Tenali, traditionally known to encourage its students in various forms of art and culture apart from the mandatory curricular activities. Rajesh had a gang of friends who met regularly to crack jokes and get appreciation from the other members. If no one laughed at a joke, the particular member was debarred  from presentation for two weeks to enable him to sharpen his skills.  It was this association that helped Rajesh to make a mark on the film sets when he moved into the cine industry to try his luck as an actor. 

Those days the whole of south Indian cinema was based out of Madras and many struggling actors and  technicians became friends cutting across the language differences. Although Rajesh worked in the Telugu film industry, he had many friends in all possible groups and was a hit during the get togethers. Everyone appreciated his sense of humour and ability to tell stories. The camaraderie continued  even after the Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam film industries shifted production base to their home states. 

The stories of Rajesh were only half true ; he tweaked them to create humour and at times made up far fetched tales such as a romance between co- artists. Most people who knew Rajesh well, took his tales in a lighter vein and laughed it off when they came to know the actual truth of the matter months later.

 Once Rajesh told a lady artist working with him " Anjali, I hear you are doing a double role in a Tamil movie." 

"Yes brother. I am so happy to get this opportunity." 

"You are getting double payment for your double efforts isn't it?"

"No" The poor girl answered. "Do you normally get paid double ?" 

"Yes of course! After all you are putting in double the work." 

Anjali enquired about this with a couple of friends during lunch time and she became the laughing stock and source of mirth for everyone on the sets for the entire fortnight 's schedule of the film's shoot! 

Rajesh continued to be the centre of attraction of meetings when there was no work or when they were travelling abroad for a shoot. It was during one of these travels that Rajesh told a funny story of  Captain Naidu a relatively new member to the film industry . Captain Naidu entered the industry donning the role of a villain after taking premature retirement from the army. 

Rajesh's story goes like this: They were all staying at a star hotel for the shoot of a film. As there was early pack up on one day due to bad sunlight, the actors and crew returned to the hotel at 4 PM. At around 5 PM when people were having fun at the hotel's swimming pool, Captain Naidu ogled at a pretty woman in the pool. When this continued for about 15 minutes a man said to be her husband and a Superintendent of Police, appeared with a gun and shot at Captain who rushed to his room on the ground floor and bolted it from inside.  

Everyone was imagining the funny scenes of a fleeing Captain and had a hearty laugh. Usually, whatever Rajesh said amongst friends was enjoyed for the moment and they forgot about it, as they moved on to the next assignment. On this occasion though, a waiter who happened to overhear the conversation passed it on to a film magazine. Then all hell broke loose. Captain threatened to kill the offender. He said his remarks had created marital discord and a wedge between him and his wife. 

Two years later. Rajesh checked in to the Ritz, the best hotel in the city . At round 12 noon, he was relaxing at the lounge near the reception . His shooting would start only the next day. Some local friends had invited him for drinks & dinner.  He was looking forward to an enjoyable evening.

It was then that he saw the captain! The burly man took one look at him and started moving menacingly towards him. Rajesh got up and immediately ran for dear life, followed in hot pursuit by the panting captain. Rajesh first had no idea where to run. Finally  he ran up two flight of stairs to the safety of his room. He could hear fierce thumping on the door by the captain and his angry words rending the air. Finally, after what seemed like eternity, the staff came and took the captain away. 

The hotel staff passed on the information to people they called "friends of both the actors". A team landed up in an hour's time and a meeting was arranged at the King suite , the best accommodation in the hotel. .During the discussions and after mediation, Rajesh apologized to the Captain and said he had not intended to cause any harm and that whatever he said was in jest, for the fun of the moment. However, Rajesh hastened to add that in future, he would never ever tell a story about captain. The two actors shook hands and the matter was treated as closed. 

Truce had been achieved with the intervention of some noble souls. The actor had managed to save himself by the skin of his teeth. Yet , given his basic nature, perhaps ten, fifteen or twenty years later, Rajesh may relate this very incident on a public platform to regale the audience! Who knows? 

NB: This post is a part of  challenge #BlogchatterA2Z