Suresh Babu, the new Film Chamber President

Producer Daggubati Suresh Babu has been elected as the new president of Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce. The voting to elect new president took place on Sunday in Hyderabad and the results were declared late in the evening. Babu, a leading producer and distributor, has defeated Narayana Das and Murali Mohan Rao to bag the top post.

He will succeed NV Prasad as the new president. Though it was the turn of exhibition sector – from Nizam area -- to bag the president post this time around, Babu who has his roots in AP has swept the polls.

Telangana fraternity unhappy

Noted Telangana voice Allani Sridhar expressed his dissent over the way the elections took place. Speaking to media persons in the city on Monday, he said, “The elections were marked by malpractices and muscle power. Suresh Babu threatened some voters and divided some through caste.”

He said that some members – like T Rama Satyanarayana – exercised multiple votes, causing their representative from Telangana, Murali Mohan Rao, to lose. Rao on his part said that it was time that an exhibitor from Telangana was elected as the new president of the Chamber. “Rules were violated by Suresh Babu to win the election.

Election officer Sujatha too heeded to Babu’s directions. It couldn’t get worse than this.” Seething with anger, he added, “I was not in the fray to be the next president. Ideally I would have loved to see any of four exhibitors from Telangana heading the chamber but that didn’t happen, courtesy Babu’s high-handedness.”

He said that that some members contested polls for their selfish motifs. “Their idea is to use Chamber to get their works done,” he alleged. Sridhar said that Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce should be divided into two so that TS film representatives can get their due. “We should get separated like brothers but should work like relatives for the betterment of Telugu cinema,” he said.