Actress and television presenter Lakshmi Manchu has opened up about the time she put blockbuster filmmaker SS Rajamouli in a fix.

Lakshmi is gearing up for her upcoming digital chat show, "Coming Back To Life With Lakshmi Manchu", and "Baahubali" maker Rajamouli is a guest on one of the episodes.

"There is an episode where Rajamouli Gaaru was my guest. Just for fun, I told Rajamouli sir to make a one minute pitch for a film, and then I said 'sir, your time starts now!' He started laughing and said, 'I am not a spontaneous person at all. I think you put me in a fix!' I had a moment when an iconic filmmaker like him says that! No wonder he needs five years and two films to deliver the magic of 'Baahubali'," laughed Laxmi, while speaking to IANS.

Lakshmi's guests also include fashion designer Bibhu Mohapatra, designer duo Shantanu and Nikhil,

The show also features actress Taapsee Pannu, American filmmaker Frank Coraci, tennis aces Sania Mirza and Prakash Amritraj, and pastry chefs Pooja Dhingra and Anna Poliviou among others.

"Bibhu told me he would give me discount, and I was like, 'wow! that's fancy!' But the revelation was their opinion on fashion. I always believed that wearing jeans at a fashion event is not right but both the celebrated designers said it is totally cool to wear jeans at a fashion event. They said it is all about how we treat the pair of jeans," she said.

The chat show was shot during lockdown, and the phase gave her a better understanding of how the global pandemic is changing lives.

"In last few months during lockdown we have seen a huge amount of toxicity on social media because staying at home, we spent a lot of time online. But trolls and mean comments are coming from no one but those who are frustrated. They are 'keyboard warriors' and we should ignore them because we also have seen the positive impact of right use of social media," said Lakshmi, whose show airs from November 15 on South Bay Youtube channel, an initiative by the Telugu superstar Rana Daggubati.

(Arundhuti Banerjee can be contacted at arundhuti.b@ians.in)