Rana Daggubatti was 'shocked' when a Mumbai friend addressed Mahesh Babu as Namrata's husband: 'I told him just wait...'

Rana Daggubatti recalled an old conversation with a friend where he said that the only Telugu actor he knew was Chinu's husband. Rana then realized that Chinu was Namrata Shirodkar.

Actor Rana Daggubati, who is gearing up for the release of the upcoming web series Rana Naidu, opened up about the emergence of South films in the country with the success of films like RRR even in the West. In a recent interview, the Baahubali actor spoke about his perception of South films and how the audience didn't even know the name of some of the famous South actors a few years ago. (

Rana Daggubatti recalled an old conversation with a friend who knew Mahesh Babu as Chinu's husband.

Rana currently awaits the release of Rana Naidu. It is the Indian adaptation of Ray Donavan, in which he has teamed up with his uncle Venkatesh for the first time. During the promotion of his upcoming series, Rana was asked to comment on the popularity of south films and whether he ever anticipated such a huge audience reception from before.

Speaking to The Indian Express in a new interview, the actor said that he has been trying to make films that would cater to audiences in every region for quite some time now. Rana then went on to share a hilarious conversation he had with a friend in Mumbai a few years back. “I was away for a few years while filming for Baahubali, so when I met this friend, I told him about the film. When he asked who was playing the titular role, I said Prabhas, and he was like ‘Who’s Prabhas?’ I didn’t know how to explain that to him so told him the names of his few films. He had not watched any of those films and then he told me something really crazy. He said the only Telugu actor I know is Chinu’s husband. I was wondering what he meant and then I realised that Chinu was Namrata Shirodkar. I was shocked that they knew of Mahesh Babu in that sense. I told him just wait for four-five years, and an army of us will land up here,” said the actor.

Rana had earlier praised RRR and director SS Rajamouli for breaking the walls of cinema in India. He is gearing up for the release of Rama Naidu, which releases on Netflix on March 10. It also stars Surveen Chawla, Sushant Singh, Abhishek Banerjee, Gaurav Chopra, and Ashish Vidyarthi among others.