Hyderabad: Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is giving his supporters a novel insight into his personality, far away from conventional political interviews to news channels or via public meetings.
From how “romantic” he was as a student, to how he made his bike roar in university when women students passed by, to his interest in volleyball, and how he took over the TDP in 1995 amid allegations of backstabbing his father-in-law NT Rama Rao — Naidu has poured his heart out on two Telugu talk shows streamed on separate OTT platforms over the last five months.
In this way, he has become the first politician in the country to use OTT media to connect with voters. The Andhra Pradesh polls will be held in 2024.
The first show Naidu appeared on was called Unstoppable, released in October last year and hosted by the former CM’s brother-in-law and popular Telugu actor Nandamuri Balakrishna. The other show, titled Nijam with Smita, was streamed this month and hosted by pop singer Smita.
On the shows, Naidu has shared personal moments with the hosts, cracked jokes, made satirical comebacks, talked about his “heroic” student days when he got involved in physical fights in college, described playing pranks, and explained how he chose politics over becoming a civil services officer.
When Balakrishna asked Naidu what his “big alliance” so far has been — a question asked as part of a game on the show — the latter replied that it was his marriage.
Naidu is married to Balakrishna’s sister, daughter of the late TDP founder and veteran Telugu star NT Rama Rao (NTR). Naidu even called his wife to thank her for supporting him throughout and told her how much he “liked” her.
But that was not all. The talk shows also touched upon political topics, from how Naidu contested his first MLA seat in the late 1970s, to his relationship with NTR.
“When one thinks of Naidu, they remember him as a chief minister, a good administrator and leader. But we wanted people to know him as a person, know more about his private life, open him up a bit, and give his view on the allegations he has been facing for years. Behind the doors, he is funny and sarcastic and we thought it would be good if people get to see that side of him,” one of Naidu’s political strategists told ThePrint.
“The idea was to connect with people in the 18-40 age group — the youngsters. We initially wanted to do a series on him and release it on a renowned streaming platform, but we narrowed it down to another one. Balakrishna had suggested why not start with his show, so we did,” the strategist added.
Balakrishna is also a TDP leader and an MLA from Andhra Pradesh’s Hindupur constituency.
Explaining further, the strategist said: “We wanted to cut through the audience with this approach. We first thought our target audience would be 18 to 40 years old, but we realised that if this (the show) was playing at someone’s home, even a 55-year-old would connect to it, given Naidu’s age, his decades-old political career and his leadership. We wanted to show that the 2024 (Andhra) polls will see the best version of Naidu.”
Sources told ThePrint that it took “months” to get Naidu on board with the OTT idea.
“If you observe, these shows are not just platforms for him to discuss his personal life. These are carefully planned and crafted shows which make sure there is a balance of political and personal discussions. That is how we want to connect with the audience to use this politically,” a TDP leader said.
Also read: How Congress became irrelevant in Andhra Pradesh in a span of just 7 years
Naidu on ‘big decisions’
Naidu has been dogged by allegations that he “backstabbed” NTR and toppled his government to take control of the TDP in 1995. Despite the controversy, though, Naidu emerged as NTR’s successor and became the face of the party in undivided Andhra Pradesh.
On both shows, Naidu explained that NTR was his “inspiration” to be in politics and serve people. Subtly addressing the controversial topic of taking over the TDP, he said he tried to convince NTR to pacify revolting TDP MLAs at the time, but it didn’t work.
He asserted that there had been a “growing influence of outsiders on NTR” back then, indicating that there was no other way to save the party.
Balakrishna, too, agreed that his father was emotionally charged at the time and did not analyse political consequences much. NTR had married a much younger Lakshmi Parvathy, his second wife, in 1993. The move was not well received within his own family and children and led to talk of him prioritising Parvathi over his family and her influence in his decision-making.
For Naidu, if the “big alliance” was his marriage, the “big decision” in his life was the 1995 takeover of the TDP, he said upon being asked about the “big decision” in his life by Balakrishna.
Naidu’s son Lokesh, a TDP leader too, graced Unstoppable as well. When asked if his father wears any other attire — Naidu is always seen in his trademark light-yellow khadi shirt — Lokesh replied that he wears the same thing even if he is in the Maldives or Bangkok for vacation.
On both shows, Naidu also spoke about how his “political” rival, the late Congressman and former Andhra chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR), was once his close friend, at a time when both started off as MLAs. He revealed that both of them often “hung out” together, even in Delhi, adding that there was never any personal enmity between them.
Today, YSR’s son YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is the Andhra CM and Naidu’s biggest political competitor.
More offbeat content
On Nijam with Smita, the discussion was not just about Naidu’s personal life but also on “development versus populism”, a topic which host Smita opened with.
Naidu’s leadership, the projects he developed in his tenure as CM (1995 to 2004 in united Andhra Pradesh and 2014 to 2019 subsequently), his contribution to developing the IT sector in Hyderabad in the early 2000s and NTR as his “inspiration” — all of these were talked about on the show.
Andhra’s Rayalaseema region being “backward” and leaders’ role in this, and how NTR started irrigation projects there were also topics of discussion.
On Unstoppable, Naidu explained how he managed to secure a meeting with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 1997. What followed was Microsoft setting up an office in Hyderabad, Naidu pointed out.
On Nijam with Smita, he spoke about how he could not clear his Class 10 board exam and the lesson that taught him.
Naidu’s TDP suffered a huge defeat to the YSR Congress in the 2019 Andhra polls in which the latter won a thumping majority in the 175-member assembly. The TDP has since been struggling to maintain its base and is preparing to defeat Jagan Reddy in 2024, when Andhra is due for polls again.
Naidu had said in November last year that 2024 could be his last election if he did not come to power.
More to come, including on YouTube
According to sources, the TDP chief is expected to appear on more OTT shows, and do similar offbeat content on YouTube too. A YouTube content creator has also recently joined the TDP.
On a YouTube channel named ‘TDP Activist’, there are short videos, with one in which Naidu is seen wearing sunglasses while posing with an admirer.
The strategy team has similar plans for Nara Lokesh too so that he can connect more with the people. Lokesh is currently on a 4,000-kilometre padayatra (walkathon) across Andhra and was part of a ‘Hello Lokesh’ event on Friday in Tirupati, where the audience was allowed to ask him any question.
“The idea behind ‘Hello Lokesh’ is that whenever we meet a new person, we say ‘hello’. Similarly, the audience can introduce themselves and ask Lokesh anything,” the strategist quoted earlier said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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