Bithiri Sathi, the most popular character that has been entertaining the viewers of V6 channel, is going to make a new beginning in TV9, the most popular Telugu television news channel.
Not many people know that his real name is Chevella Ravi and he hails from Pamena village of Ranga Reddy district.
Though he did a few stand-up comedian shows and worked in channels like 6TV and Zee TV, he became popular only after joining V6 and started enacting the character of Bithiri Sathi, an intellectually disabled person in Teenmaar News, along with anchor Savithri, whose actual name is Siva Jyothi.
The Teenmaar News is a parody on current affairs, politicians and entertainment industry is a huge hit and Bithiri Sathi became a YouTube sensation with Telugu audience and has millions of hits for his programme.
The character has become so popular among the audiences that they do not see him in another role and do not acknowledge him as Ravi. Needless to say, Sathi has become the USP of V6 channel.
After V6 channel owner and former MP G Vivek parted ways with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government and joined the BJP, the TRS leadership has been allegedly making efforts to weaken the channel.
The ruling party which has already taken TV9 under its control, apparently thought the best way to hit V6 channel below the belt is to see that Bithiri Sathi and Savithri are out of V6.
First, the TRS government gave away best journalist award to Sathi and thus, he got closer to the ruling party.
After indirectly acquiring TV9 a few months ago, the TRS leadership succeeded in its attempt to lure Bithiri Sathi into TV9 by offering him huge salary, much more than what he was getting in V6.
In the meantime, Sathi also started refusing to perform skits that had references to chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao or his son K T Rama Rao and the TRS government in general, much to the disgruntlement of V6 channel management. And finally, he quit V6 to join TV9.
Sources said V6 management has told Ravi that the character of Bithiri Sathi he had played all these days, including that of Savithri, were the intellectual property of V6 channel.
“The concept, the character and the script – were all done by V6 staff and Ravi had only acted as per the script. So, he cannot use the name of Bithiri Sathi nor his mannerisms in any other channel,” a source close to V6 channel said.
If what V6 management has claimed is true, Ravi will appear in a different role with different mannerisms in TV9.
In fact, in his parting statement, he claimed that he would continue to entertain the audiences with new ideas and concepts. It would mean, Bithiri Sathi character has gone off screen!