Jagapathi Babu Comes Out Of ‘Rich Father’ Trap

There was a phase when the family hero of the early 2000s, Jagapathi Babu, almost disappeared as a hero. Then came Balakrishna’s Legend and everything changed overnight. His villain avatar clicked massively, and from there, Jagapathi became one of the busiest senior actors in Telugu cinema.

Though he got busy as a costly character artist, another problem quietly started. Filmmakers began repeatedly casting him in the same kind of “rich father” roles. Stylish businessman father. Elite family head. Classy emotional dad. Films like Srimanthudu made that image even stronger, and eventually, the industry simply stopped seeing him beyond that template.

Interestingly, Jagapathi himself openly admitted multiple times that he had become bored with both ultra-modern villain roles and repetitive father characters. He even expressed disappointment that younger filmmakers were not considering him for ordinary, grounded characters in small films. He announced to work even at reduced remuneration if such roles are offered. Finally, he got his thirst met through the film Godari Gattupaina.

Inside the film, he plays Shyam Babu, a middle-class Christian father working as a night watchman. No luxury. No designer costumes. No larger-than-life elevation scenes. Just a simple man whose entire world revolves around his daughter, the heroine. While his performance worked out, the lack of a story in the movie and the routine narrative made it a boring watch.

Though the film hasn’t given relief to the team, Jagapathi might have felt happy for coming out of the rich-father and stylish-villain trap.