“At this stage of my life I don’t have to work for stardom”, says Brahmastra actor Nagarjuna

Telugu superstar Nagarjuna turned 63 on August 29. Two days later, he is still trying to answer all the good wishes. “There are hundreds of messages. I guess this is the accumulated goodwill of the years that I have been loved by the audience. I am literally trying to respond to all the messages. But it is a losing battle,” sigh Nagarjuna, doyen of Telugu cinema who also struck big in Bollywood in the 1990s with films like Shiva, Criminal and Khuda Gawah.

It was a working birthday for Nag. “We are doing a new season of Bigg Boss Telugu which I host. Doing the show is tougher than I imagined.” After years Nag will be seen in another Hindi film Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra opening on September 29.

Nag also has a new Telugu release The Ghost lined up. “No, I don’t play a ghost in it. Not like a spirit. The title refers to my skills as an Interpol agent. I am impossible to track down. It is a full-on action film. I love being in the action mode especially now when I am in better physical shape than ever before.”

Nag says he prefers to work when he feels like it. “At this stage of my life I don’t have to work for stardom or money or any other reason except job satisfaction. I want to go on working until I can. My father (the legendary Akkineni Nageswara Rao) literally died with his boots on. He collapsed on the set of a film. For an actor what can be better than that?’