Unlike other states where Dalit writers like Paul Chirakkarode of Kerala and feminist Dalit voices like Bama from Tamil Nadu found recognition and readers, these writers were restricted to their politics and did not find mass readership.

Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, accepts that Rajamouli’s Magadheera was his inspiration for his new animated show Disenchantment.

Rayalaseema or Ceded Districts, because they were ceded to the British administrators by the Nizam rulers.

They were put up in the plush Manjeera Guest House owned by the government. The Telugu daily Eenadu mocked the Maoists who were invited talks by showing waiters in posh restaurants who were confused by the culinary demands of their outlawed guests.

At some point, when he wasn’t served coffee, Chiranjeevi lost his temper at a local party worker; the worker yelled back at him.

My marks in Hindi made an easy case to convince my parents, but it took a villain from Kerala to stab NTR Jr for me to learn Telugu and understand it.

Called Obul Reddy, Prakash Raj’s villain in Okkadu, was perhaps based on the real-life gangster named Obul Reddy, in the neighbouring district of Anantapur, who was known for his atrocities against women.

The Telugu poet Aarudra is supposed to have said, ‘The oyster doesn’t make the pearls / with the jeweller in mind. The poet doesn’t make poems / with the reader in mind.’

Telugu has, instead, been reduced to political activism through movements, such as the Madiga Dandora movement, which aimed to unify the Madiga caste (the lowest amongst the caste hierarchies).