Praising Shekar Kammula and his latest film Leader, Prakash Raj said that he had felt sad when a jury member of the last National Film Award asked him if there was no film worthy of giving a competition to the many films in other languages, but now, after watching Leader, he feels he can now raise his head.

He said that, a politician had told me in wonderment, feeling aghast that the film spoke the truth rather boldly (which other so-called political flicks failed to do, from time to time).

The film mirrors the sense of outrage and anger that Mr. Kammula has toward the state-of-affairs, he said.

He said that the film has a lot of honesty about it.

Released on the 19th of February, Leader is doing well at the box office, though the second half slackens a bit.

It stars Rana, along with Richa and Priya Anand, and sees Kota Srinivasa Rao and Suhasini in interesting roles.