Allari Naresh, is one of the few stars, who came out unharmed among the heap of flops last year as his comic-caper Bendu Apparao set cash registers ringing. “The overwhelming response to my small film was an enjoyable surprise,” he says with relish. The sleeper hit cemented his position as a comedy star in T-town. “I always wanted to be known as a good actor, but the audience seems to prefer seeing me as a comedy star,” he confesses with a laugh. So is he now eyeing the slot vacated by seasoned comedy star Rajendra Prasad? “I have no such intentions. Rajendra Prasad was a versatile actor. I have just begun my career and have a long way to go,” he reasons.

“Comedy is one of the toughest things to do. Akshay Kumar is luminous in comic scenes and his films have worked commercially. Other top stars like Rajnikanth and Amitabh Bachchan too had perfect comic timing. These three are my inspiration,” he says. While comedy is his forte, what gives him the jitters? “Romantic scenes. I feel very prickly doing them,” he points out. Allari also dislikes double entendres, vulgarity and smooching scenes. “My fans are mostly kids and ladies. I dislike wrong them. And I can never step into Emraan Hashmi’s shoes and smooch like him in a film,” he avers.

On the private front, the 29-year-old actor is not in a temper to settle down. “May be I'll do that in 2012. But that will happen only after my elder brother and actor Rajesh ties the knot,” he says. Allari used to be a well-liked fixture in the party circuit but now seems to have cut down on his partying. “I have learnt to strike a balance between work and pleasure,” he says. In the last two years, he’s also transformed into a workaholic. “After my film Nenu bombed I had to sit home for 13 months! That’s when I realized that I needed to work harder. And that’s what I am doing. I am never away from the studios even for two days,” he says on a parting note.