Krishna recalls how Kodi Ramakrishna launched his son Mahesh Babu's career in films

Tollywood superstar Krishna paid his last respects to director Kodi Ramakrishna, who died of breathing issues on Friday. The senior actor recalled how launched his son Mahesh Babu's career in films.

Kodi Ramakrishna was one of the most prolific directors of the Telugu film industry. While others were busy churning out masala entertainers, he experimented with his scripts and did movies in various genres like spy, fantasy, thriller, family drama and social message-oriented movies and he tasted success with each of them. In fact, he is the one who introduced VFX to Indian cinema through his films

Kodi Ramakrishna directed over 100 movies in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi and he is also one of the most successful directors of Indian cinema. In a career spanning over three decades, the director worked with the stalwarts of the Tollywood and superstar Krishna is one of those actors.

It was Kodi Ramakrishna, who launched Mahesh Babu as child artiste through his 1983 Telugu Action drama film Poratam starring his father Krishna. Prince went on to essay child roles in seven movies before he made his debut as a hero. One of those movies was Krishna's Gudachari 117, which was also directed by Ramakrishna.

Soon after hearing the news about his death, Krishna rushed to Kodi Ramakrishna's residence and paid his last respects to him. Talking to the media, the superstar said, "It was Kodi Ramakrishna who spotted a young Mahesh Babu on the sets of Poratam in 1983, and decided to cast Mahesh Babu as his brother."

Meanwhile, Krishna went on to say that the director made his son an actor. He added, "Mahesh Babu was very naughty and he used to run around the studio without making noise. But Kodi Ramakrishna was patient enough to make my son Mahesh Babu act and give his best performance in his first full-fledged role as a child artist."

However, Mahesh Babu turned a hero with K Raghavendra Rao's 1999 movie Raja Kumarudu and has starred in 24 movies so far. He is currently busy with the shooting of his upcoming movie Maharshi, which is helmed by Vamsi Paidipally of Oopiri fame. After wrapping it up, he will join hands with Anil Ravipudi for his 26th project, which is expected to go on the floor in the month of May.