Its known that both ANR and Kamalhassan are known to be ‘atheists” and believed in humanism over god-belief, but ANR left Kamal far behind onscreen by playing few roles as a staunch devotee in films. Despite Kamal was known for taking up many a challenging role, but he shied away from playing a disciple of lord (except for his brief role in “Dasavatharam) but kept away from devotional genre, fearing that he may not do a convincing job, since he doesn’t believe in Almighty in real-life.
Whereas, ANR coolly took up that challenge and proved that he would be the ‘best god-believer’ ( theist) on screen with devotional blockbusters like “Viplanarayana”, “Bhakta Thukaram” and “Buddhimanthudu”. Along with establishing his versatality, naata saamrat proved that how actors should keep away their personal beliefs, while taking up a role and do full justice to the role. After watching him as a tukaram and orthodox priest, who would dare to say that he was an ‘atheist’ since he performed better than many-so-called god-believing actors and lived up to the title of ‘nata samrat”.
