Jagapathi Babu has been through difficult periods that the public rarely sees. Speaking to media this week, the veteran Telugu actor revealed one of them — a stretch of depression during which he reached out to Prabhas, who was shooting in Georgia at the time. The response he got back was immediate.
“I was going through depression and wanted to speak to him. He told me, ‘Darling, I am there. Tell me your problem, I will solve it,’ and gave me a lot of confidence,” Jagapathi Babu said, as quoted by Deccan Chronicle. After returning from the shoot, Prabhas met him in person and offered encouragement that Jagapathi Babu says gave him genuine strength. “Though he is younger than me, he has a very big heart. He loves and cares for everyone.”
The comments were made during a media interaction and were not prompted by a film promotion — which gives them a different weight. Jagapathi Babu is not trading on proximity to a star. He is describing a phone call that landed when he needed it.
On Rajamouli: Humility and No Shortcuts
Jagapathi Babu also spoke about S.S. Rajamouli with equal warmth — and a specific observation worth noting. He praised the director’s humility despite the scale of his success, describing the entire Rajamouli family as grounded and affectionate. Then he added something that cuts against how the film industry often works: “He may be close to someone, but he will not give opportunities based on that. He chooses actors only according to the character.”
The line lands differently from standard industry praise. Rajamouli keeping personal relationships separate from casting decisions is, in the Telugu film ecosystem, not a given. Jagapathi Babu’s framing of it as something worth aspiring to — “if people can learn even 25 percent of the values practiced by Rajamouli’s family, they will succeed” — suggests he means it as a genuine benchmark, not a compliment.
Jagapathi Babu himself has had a well-documented career resurgence in recent years, moving from leading man to a run of sharp, scene-stealing supporting turns. The perspective of someone who has navigated that arc, and who speaks about both vulnerability and gratitude in the same breath, carries a weight that younger voices in the industry rarely have.
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