Kamal Haasan is one such legend whose work and talents transcend generations. Even now, on the wrong side of fifties he churns out stellar performances that would remain special in their own right decades later.
Today I was watching videos of his interview to TV9 with his daughter Shruti Haasan sitting next to him. The interview had him discussing many things through including his daughter's budding career.
One thing that particularly caught my attention during the course of the interview was his Telugu skills. He wasn't ashamed of his Telugu speaking skills and instead tried to speak as often and as much in Telugu as he can. This is a great quality that I see very few people from Telugu cinema industry could be credited with.
More so when I think about many other stars or legends that have mesmerized us for decades, the likes of Rajnikanth, Ilayaraja, Prakashraj- all of who speak Telugu with pride when they address a Telugu audience. As a Telugu bidda who can speak fluent Tamil myself, when I see Ilayaraja struggling to speak Telugu but yet does not give up because he wants to be as original and as closer to the audience as he can be, I understand and learn how to keep oneself grounded despite the successes one may have seen in life. Through their humility they tell you how the world around you is bigger than the you - the individual, and how one has to keep learning to be a more perfect person.
And these are all the same people that speak in Tamil 99% of the time when in Tamilnadu. They don't use English unless otherwise they think necessary, which should put to shame stars from Telugu industry some of who try and speak as much in English as possible.
I do find a very genuine exception from Telugu biddas. S.P. Balasubramanyam, the legend. He is someone who tries to address an audience in their native language without any fancies whatsoever. And he does it better than many native speakers.
The problem with stardom in Andhra is that people's feet go off the ground with a few successes. How else can one explain our heroes being able to speak and deliver lengthy dialogs in every slang in Telugu on the screen with impeccable diction in each case and act like an alien to the language when they speak to an audience off the screen but to label them impostors.
There is probably no greater virtue than humility: something that cannot be taught but learnt.
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