Fire brand politician, yesteryears’ dynamic actress and queen of Jabardast Roja Selvamani is missing! Well, not in the actual literal sense but from the small screen. Despite the general perception that Jabardast has runied clean comedy scenario in Telugu states, the show’s popularity has only been going up ever since the launch. While the show has been critiqued for normalizing women abuse and such social evils, it did successfully make the production house Mallemala a profitable organization. Not just for the production house, even for the TRPs of the channel airing it. The ‘comedians’ too have become a household name across the Telugu states. Anchors Anasuya and Rashmi who were not very know before this show became instant starts. And the actual ‘stars’, politician turned Mega brother Nagababu Konidela and politican-actress Roja Selvamani had their own share of success from this show. They found themselves in a controversial situation more than once, for appreciating some sleeze content despite being ‘judges’ on the show. They received a lot of flak for supporting comedy skits which were insensitive towards a number of social issues.
There were a lot of speculations during the recent AP assembly elections that both Roja Selvamani who is considered a fire brand female politician for YSRCP and Nagababu who suddenly entered the fray on behalf of Janasena as MP candidate for Narasapuram, will quit the show. Jabardast became quite a baggage considering the political image these two judges wanted to portray. But, despite the initial resistance for Roja in her constituency Nagari, she went on to win the election. At one point it was speculated that she will be made ‘Women and Child Minister’, owing her closeness to party supremo and current CM of AP YS Jagan. Roja was more than miffed when her name didn’t make it to the list. She was said to be pacified and was assured with plush post in the near future. As promised, now she has been appointed as the as the chairperson of APIIC (Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation). Finally, while her hardwork and dedication to the party is beginning to pay off, Roja may have to forgo Jabardast. It is speculated that YS Jagan Mohan Reddy instructed Roja Selvamani to give up being the judge on the show and dedicate herself fully to the nominated post. Adding to the speculations, the recent promo of the show had choreographer Shekar master and Nagababu instead of the regular pairing. While YSRCP leaders are happy that the controversial Jabardast show is no longer a matter of concern for them, the audience may miss ever energetic Roja on the show.