Mahesh Babu gets emotional about gap in career, failures

Mahesh Babu has been interviewed by Nandamuri Balakrishna on AHA’s talk show Unstoppable. In the interview, the host asked the ‘Sarkaru Vaari Paata’ actor about a 3-year gap he took before ‘Khaleja’. “When you were becoming a No. 1 star, why did you take a 3-year gap?” Balayya asked.

Mahesh gave a thoughtful response. “It was not planned. It was a tough phase. My grandmother passed away and Namratha lost her parents in the same year due to cancer. I wanted to take a gap for a year. But it turned out to be a 2-year gap and even more. But I don’t regret the gap. I got to learn a lot during that phase. Gautham was born in that year. After the super-hit ‘Pokiri’ in 2006, I was in a state of confusion as to what kind of films I should do. The three-year gap helped me learn,” Mahesh recalled.

Balayya asked if Mahesh was feeling insecure that other heroes were scoring hits and he was not doing films. “Not at all. One has to be confident in their own skin,” he said.

Mahesh said that failures depress him for a few days and make him ruminate. “When a film flops, I feel hugely let down. I feel that I am responsible for the failure, for people losing their monies. The flop film was made in the first place because I had okayed the story. I don’t come out of my room for 2-3 days after a film of mine flops. I take my own decisions, right or wrong. I want my son too to take his own decisions in the future. One has to recognize failures so as to achieve success,” Mahesh said.