Telugu star Pawan Kalyan joined Instagram on the occasion of revolutionary Alluri Sitarama Raju’s birth anniversary on Tuesday.

Nagendra Babu Konidela, brother of Kalyan, shared a story on Instagram, announcing the news of the popular actor’s Instagram debut. His story featured a screenshot of Kalyan’s Instagram page with a message written in Telugu.

“On the day of the birth anniversary of Alluri Sitarama Raju, who said that the freedom of the motherland needs hands and not words, welcome to Instagram my Alluri, whom I know, whom I have seen,” the caption says.

Kalyan's Instagram debut was met with tremendous enthusiasm from his admirers, who trended the hashtag #PawanKalyanOnInstagram on Twitter. In just a few hours, he gained an impressive following of over 500,000 on the microblogging platform. His bio carries an empowering message — Rise, face, choose..Jai Hind! — written in Telugu.

Fondly referred to as Power Star by his supporters, Kalyan has worked in numerous films spanning almost three decades. Some of his notable works include Teen Maar (2011), Tholi Prema (1998), Gudumba Shankar (2004) and Bheemla Nayak (2022).

Kalyan’s upcoming movie Bro features him alongside his nephew Sai Dharam Tej. It is set to hit the theatres on July 28.