Hyderabad:
For almost 20 years, superstar Balakrishna and megastar Chiranjeevi were undeclared rivals competing to rule the Telugu cineworld. With the two in rival parties now, the political arena has become their new battlefield. Balakrishna has declared that he will contest the Assembly Elections in 2014 and hopes to bring back to power Telugu Desam, the party his father NT Rama Rao established.
"I will not contest a Parliament seat, only an assembly seat. We will fight the Congress under Chandrababu Naidu's leadership to bring back to power the party established by my father," said N Balakrishna, actor and TDP leader.
Tinsel world stars hoping to become stars on the political horizon is nothing new to Andhra Pradesh - in the early 80s, it was NT Rama Rao, before the last elections, it was Chiranjeevi and now it appears to be the turn of NT Rama Rao's most successful actor son Balakrishna.
A war of words has broken out between the two actor-turned-politicians after Balakrishna reportedly made disparaging remarks about Chiranjeevi merging his Praja Rajyam Party with the Congress. Balakrishna had reportedly said he did not believe Chiranjeevi entered politics to serve the people.
Irked by the comments, Congress MLA Chiranjeevi said, "Balakrishna is my friend. But he is childish. I don't think it is worth my time to comment on such childish comments."
"He called me childish? That is okay. He has learnt to talk now. That is why he is sitting and lobbying in Delhi for ministerial berths," Balakrishna retaliated.
The face-off between the actors has become an engaging public screenplay but the political climax in the form of elections is still some time away.