Telugu actor has grabbed eyeballs with his rugged looks and powerful screen presence

In fact, the term ‘hot' has become almost synonymous with Rana, who is on many women's most desirable lists. He talks to CS about being sexy:

Hot is thy name
I have accepted the term ‘hot' though I haven't exactly understood how I managed to acquire it. The films that I have done so far are not those customary glamorous films that appeal to women audiences.

I've done dark films, political dramas, action thrillers and stuff like that. But in spite of these off-beat films, if they still consider my looks hot, then I believe it is recognition of my talent, and I will gracefully acknowledge it.

I really don't know how to react when I see women swooning over me, especially if they are elder to me. More than me, it is usually my mother who gets into a dilemma, as she doesn't really know how to react to all this.

Sexy quotient
Whatever it is, whether my voice, my height, my looks or the whole package, if something is going right and working in my favour, I'd rather not question it. I'm just happy to live with it.

The good thing is that, as much as they like me, they are fond of Joki – the character I played, or Arjun Prasad – the leader I played, apart from the others. Being liked in such diverse roles is fantastic for an actor to start with.

Mistaken identity
This incident was in an Andhra village, even before my first film Leader had released.

This young female fan kept telling me how much she liked my performances and started citing various scenes from my uncle Venkatesh's films.

She had completely mistaken me for my uncle and it took me quite sometime to convince her that I was actually his nephew and had not done even one film by then.

Women I love...
I can easily name 50 women whom I find extremely beautiful and sensuous.

But the top five on my list would be divas like Madhubala for her dazzling beauty, Sridevi for her extraordinary performances, Rekha for her ethereal gracefulness, Madhuri Dixit for her incredible dancing, and without any doubt, Katrina Kaif for her drop dead good looks.