Overview
- Pawan Kalyan told an ANI podcast on Thursday that in his late teens he seriously considered joining the Naxalite movement and “wanted to pick up the gun.”
- He said the phase lasted roughly from ages 17 to 21 and included attending jana sabhas, engaging with activist circles, and experimenting with short films and documentaries.
- Kalyan credited his elder brother Chiranjeevi with confronting him about family responsibilities and persuading him to abandon the armed path.
- After that intervention he said he turned to spirituality, then acting classes, built a film career and later entered politics as Jana Sena founder and Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister.
- The disclosure is self‑reported and politically sensitive because Naxalites are an armed Maoist insurgency in India; one outlet also recalled a 2023 interview in which Kalyan described a separate adolescent crisis involving a suicide plan.