SS Rajamouli's son Karthikeya was seen attending meetings with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to finalise the designs of Amaravati — the new capital of the state. His "interference" has now set tongues wagging.
It is well known that Chandrababu Naidu was apparently not happy with British architect Norman Foster's designs of Amaravati. Hence, he decided to take inputs from SS Rajamouli, the man behind the imaginary Maheshmathi kingdom in the Baahubali films. The director visited Prabhutva Bhavana to review the designs.
Rajamouli's involvement in the project had not gone down well with many people in the film and political circles. They could not stop asking what qualified the director to be a part of the advisory team for construction of the Andhra Pradesh capital. The Baahubali creator later claimed he was not part of the team.
In a series of tweets posted on September 21, Rajamouli claimed he was there to just interpret the vision of Chandrababu Naidu. He tweeted: "Various news that I was appointed as a consultant, designer, supervisor etc for Amaravathi are not true.. Foster + Partners are a world renowned architectural firm. The designs they submitted were first class in my opinion. [sic]"
SS Rajamouli added" "@NCBN garu and his team are very happy with it but he wanted a design for the assembly to be much more iconic. All I am doing is interpreting the vision of @NCBN garu to Foster + Partners to quicken the process. Hope this small contribution of mine is some kind of help in that epic project..:) [sic]"
The director, who had recently flown to London to chalk out the final designs of Amaravati, met with Chandrababu Naidu and the officials of CRDA (Capital Region Development Authority) on Monday morning. Rajamouli reportedly gave a brief presentation about the designs to the chief minister and CRDA officials.
Interestingly, he was accompanied by his son SS Karthikeya during this meeting, photos of which are creating the buzz. Opposition parties, who had earlier raised a hue and cry over the director's involvement in the project, may politicise this issue as well.
However, many do not know that Rajamouli is not the biological father of Karthikeya, who is the son of his wife Rama from her first marriage.
Karthikeya was an assistant director for Baahubali: The Beginning and also worked as Line Producer for Naga Chaitanya's Yuddham Sharanam.
