The actors are childhood friends.
Lakshmi Manchu said that the aim of the group is to end animosity in the Telugu film industry.
Lakshmi Manchu recently revealed that she is part of a WhatsApp group with 142 other actors, including Ram Charan, Rana Daggubatti and Allu Arjun. She said that the group was made to facilitate a sense of family in the Telugu film industry so that actors can help each other promote their films and latest projects.
Speaking to Siddharth Kannan, Lakshmi said, “They’re all actors. So, what we do is, when somebody has a movie, somebody has a teaser, somebody has a trailer, they send it to the group. It’s a given that we all have to post it, we all have to do a shoutout. That’s why we created this group saying, ‘Enough of this animosity.’”
She added, “I hold this group really close. So, yeah. What are you talking about Rana, Ram Charan? We all grew up together, that clique will always be that clique. But we enhanced it and made it bigger so I’m very proud of it.”
Lakshmi is one of the few actresses in the Telugu industry who comes from a film family. She is the daughter of veteran actor Mahesh Babu. In the same chat, she spoke about how her friendship with Ram Charan and Rana Daggubatti impacted her move to Mumbai.
Speaking about moving to Mumbai, she said, “I used to stay at my best friend Rakul Preet Singh’s house. She always insisted that I move to Mumbai. I chatted with Rana (Daggubati), and he told me that I cannot stay in Hyderabad forever.” She revealed that she also stayed at Ram Charan’s house but told no one. She also told Ram Charan to not tell people that she was staying at his Mumbai home.
Lakshmi worked in the US for a while and acted in TV series like Las Vegas, Boston Legal and Desperate Housewives, besides films like The Ode and Dead Air. She returned to India and made her debut in Tollywood in 2011, where she went on to act in films like Gundello Godari and W/O Ram. She recently made her debut in Malayalam cinema with the 2022 Mohanlal-starrer Monster. This year, she played the lead role in the Disney+ Hotstar series Yakshini.
