A couple of months ago the MAA (Movie Artists Association carried out an online auction on the Axe (Rudraksha) used by Balakrishna in ‘Simha’. The money raised in this auction by MAA will be used for poor artists. The auction was won by an NRIs from USA named Garikapati Venkat and Atluri Jitendra by paying a sum of Rs 5 lakhs together. To present the axe to the auction winners a programme was organized at Film Chamber in which Balakrishna, Boyapati Sreenu, AVS, Parachuri Sivaram Prasad, Siva Krishna, Shivajiraja, Vijaya Lakshmi, Gautham Raju, Maharshi Raghava and others participated.

Speaking on the occasion Balakrishna said, “This concept of auctioning the items used in films is a good idea to raise money for a good cause like helping the poor artists. I appreciate Garikapati Venkat and Atluri Jitendra for lending a helping hand in the form of paying Rs 5 lakhs for the axe used by me in ‘Simha’. I personally thank them for their kind gesture.”

Atluri Jitendra while speaking, “We live in New Jersey and are ardent fans to Balakrishna. After learning about this axe auction, we decided to win it by any cost. By winning this auction we are indirectly helping the poor artists in the name of Balakrishna garu. We thank Maastars for giving us this opportunity.”

Producer Parachuri Sivaram Prasad expressed his happiness by saying that his movie has become the cause for helping the poor artists and that he would lend a helping hand even in the future for such programmes that cause good to the film industry.