Telugu Associations in the United States are often identified by caste. TANA is perceived to be representing the Kamma community while NATA is for the Reddy community. Both the associations are the major ones and make a splash to make their annual conclaves successful. The NATA convention happened last week in Dallas while the TANA convention is currently underway in Philadelphia.
Thaman was the musical attraction at NATA. The ace music director was strictly instructed by the organizers to avoid the songs of Balakrishna and Pawan Kalyan for obvious political reasons. Thaman especially wanted to perform for the ‘Jai Balayya’ song from Akhanda but had to drop it. Thaman had to convince them of Bheemla Nayak’s song to infuse the energy in the crowd. But it was totally different at TANA where Devi Sri Prasad performed. While the popular belief is they would censor Mega songs but it is not the case. There were no special instructions for him from the organizers. Devi started his on-stage performance with Boss Party from Chiranjeevi’s Waltair Veerayya. His medley mostly consisted of Allu Arjun songs followed by Ram Charan songs along with the songs of Nandamuri heroes.