ALAPPUZHA:
Allu Arjun may have acted in no Malayalam movie, but the Telugu superstar is a craze among Kerala’s filmgoers — and that’s why his presence is set to rock the most famous boat race in God’s Own Country.
Come this weekend, and the 35-year-old actor with his wife Sneha Reddy will attend the 66th Nehru Trophy Boat Race on the sprawling Punnamada Lake of this coastal city. Kerala Governor Justice (retd) P Sathasivam will inaugurate the November 10 event, which will also be attended by ISL team of Kerala Blasters
Support from such celebrities is of added significance to the annual festival, as Nehru Trophy has faced a postponement in the conduct of its 2018 edition. Usually held on the second Saturday of August, the races were deferred owing to floods that ravaged Kerala that monsoon month.
On Saturday, the inauguration ceremony will be attended by Union Minister of state for Culture and Tourism Alphons Kannanthanam, Kerala Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac, Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran, Civil supplies minister P Thilothaman, PWD minister G Sudhakaran, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, Secretary of Kerala Tourism Rani George and its Director P Bala Kiran.
The heats of smaller boats at the race will commence in the morning and the final competitions will be held in the afternoon. The Hyderabad-based actor will arrive at the Nedumbassery airport on Saturday, and proceed to the Lake Palace Resort in Alappuzha. He will attend the inauguration ceremony at 2 pm.
Allu has been a rage in Kerala after his Telugu movies began getting dubbed in Malayalam, the first among them being his path-breaking Arya (2004). From then on, distributors have been competing to release the dubbed Malayalam version of Allu’s films as soon as they were released in Telugu which earned him the nickname Mallu Arjun.
