Speaking at the audio release function of 'Gayatri', Dr. Mohan Babu was at his usual self. His speech was peppered with some self-praise, praise for others, and a bit of naughtiness, too.

"With God's grace, we could complete the film, not because of our efforts. He blesses only those who are humble. I never felt proud of hits, neither did I feel let-down when my films failed. It's Dasari Narayana Rao garu, my Guru, who taught me the art of dialogue-delivery. We worked on 'Gayatri' for one year. We took the help of many directors and writers, even non-Telugu ones, we re-shot the film for the best output. Madan is a nice director. Just because someone has failed, it doesn't mean one is inefficient. Madan is wonderful. Diamond Ratnababu wrote and rewrote the dialogues one hundred times," he began saying.

He said that Thaman had troubled the makers but gave the best output in the end.

He then said, in a lighter vein, "My wife used to call me 'Bava'. Now that I am not giving hits, she has stopped calling me so."

But the naughtiness bit came when he praised Shriya Saran. "I wanted to hug her during the film's making but since she is my son's heroine, I couldn't do that. I can hug Anasuya (Bharadwaj) though," he said. Anasuya could be seen tapping her head in a lighter-vein at this.

The self-praise part returned towards the end of the speech. "It's not easy to act opposite me. I have worked with the likes of NTR garu, ANR garu and Shivaji Ganesan," he said.

Shriya came in for the highest praise when Mohan Babu said that no actress of the current generation can act like her. About his son Vishnu Manchu, the senior actor said, "He is playing the younger version of me in 'Gayatri'. If his performance was not good, the film would be a flop. But he has done a great job."