Teja to make a documentary on Telugu diaspora

Filmmaker Teja is set to make a documentary that will retrace the roots of Telugu speaking diaspora across the world. The idea was born accidentally when the filmmaker was researching about Mauritius to shoot a film there.
���I was surprised to find out that Mauritius has over one million strong Telugu-speaking community. I tried to find out more about all parts of the globe that Telugu people have migrated to.I found out that close to 40 lakh Telugu people live in Myanmar and similarly, there are lakhs of Telugu people living in Sri Lanka, Cambodia and parts of Europe. In Tamil Nadu alone, there are over two crore 40 lakh people whose mother tongue is Telugu and I���m a Telugu from Tamil Nadu,��� Teja confesses adding, ���Some of them had migrated there almost 100 years ago and I wanted to reach out to them to know about their lives and what the Telugu identity means to them.���
The shooting of the film titled Cheyyetti Jai Kottu Telugoda, will begin later this year. Teja is going to visit various countries to meet the Telugu diaspora and interview them. ���I want it to be an in-depth take on the subject,��� he says. Lamenting the lack of patronage for Telugu language, Teja says, ���I hope my documentary will help people understand the glorious legacy of our language. In the past, we have had great kings like Sri Krishnadevaraya who patronised Telugu language despite his Kannada origins. The least we can do is to be aware of our legacy.���