the ground is being prepared for his eventual debuthanding over the title another striking rite of passage in tollywood is that of star fathers relinquishing their titles for their sons both nagarjuna and balakrishna have already given up their titles to make way for their children nagarjuna publicly announced to his fans to stop addressing him as yuva samrat a couple of years ago at the audio launch of king and asked them to address him as king instead balakrishna also has given up his title yuvaratna after the release of simhalike father like son star sons are born into stardom in fact many of them are trained for the task right from the time they are toddlers explaining how he had been preparing to be an actor all his life mahesh babu says i became a child star at 13 since then i knew that i will go on to become an actor there was nothing else on my mind i never even considered doing anything else every decision in my life was taken keeping my career in mind director vikram k kumar whose next film stars heroes from three generations of the akkineni family anr nagarjuna and naga chaitanya thinks its normal for children to follow in the footsteps of their parents the first role models for most children celebrity kids or otherwise are their parents be it politics bureaucracymedicine or any other profession many kids take after their parents so its only natural for star kids to do so says vikram explaining the phenomenondynasty driven as film dynasties continue to reign supreme in tollywood the path to stardom isnt going to get any easier for starryeyed middleclass actors the film industry especially tollywood is such a feudal setup that talent isnt enough even chiranjeevi rose to super stardom only after marrying allu ramalingaiahs daughter the dynastic legacy is something that is ingrained in the indian psyche which is why we see so many famous children following in the footsteps of their parents from the highest echelons of power and business besides being a safe bet for the star kids as everything is pretty much set for them continuing the legacy allows them the easiest mode to achieve name and fame says nandi awardwinning telugu cinema historian harikrishna mamidi