Lady luck smiled on city girl Kusuma in the guise of her brother Dileep Teja paving the way for her bagging a role in Tollywood’s most anticipated film and director Rajamouli’s magnum opus — Bahubali .
In fact the offer to act came to Dileep Teja, whose histrionics in a teleserial (Kushi) impressed Ms. Rama Rajamouli, wife of the director, and she felt that the youngster would fit the bill as ‘junior’ Prabhas.
Immediately Dileep was asked to attend the screen test but much to the disappointment the youngster failed to make the cut as he was heavy in weight and tall in height.
“He looked more elderly to the child artiste selected as ‘junior’ Daggupati Rana (the villain),” says Kusuma’s father Rama Rao, who shifted his base from Vijayawada to Hyderabad.
Sensing the disappointment, the director’s crew asked Dileep’s parents to give the portfolio of their son assuring some role in the future.
As luck may have it the portfolio contained photographs of Dileep’s sister, an upcoming child artiste, as well.
“Assistant Director Suresh was impressed by the features of Kusuma and offered a five-minute role in the film. I immediately said yes to the offer even though the role had no dialogues. After all who will say no to Rajamouli’s film?” asked Rama Rao.
The three-week long shooting at Ramoji Film City was like a picnic for Kusuma as she, along with other child artistes, was looked after well by the crew. “During the breaks we were served fruit juices and other eatables. After the shoot I had a chat with hero Prabhas and that was a memorable moment,” says 12-year-old Kusuma, a former student of Telaprolu Bapanaiah School and presently with KKR Gowtham,
Recollecting her shooting experience, Kusuma narrated how she was saved by the crew when the galloping horses came dangerously close to her.
“There was a delay in uttering ‘cut’ and in no time I was among many horses nearing me with breakneck speed. Someone pulled me from the way of the speeding stallions.”
Says Rama Rao, “The role gave Kusuma to enact several rasas in the short duration . In fact she gets killed in the film by the henchmen of Rana when her village gets raided.”
