Telangana film folks call for a new direction to the industry

Three organisations connected to Tollywood – Telangana Film Development Society (TFDS), Movie Artiste Association of Telangana (MAAT) and Telangana Film Talent Bank (TFTB) - came together on Wednesday to raise a collective voice and indulge in an open house session on the need to carve out a distinct Telangana identity for the film industry.

The meet titled ‘Plunder of Telangana Cinema Future by Seemandhra Film People’ circulated a 10- point charter, which among other things called for:

• Total boycott of actors, actresses and film technicians from other industries

• Construction of a film training centre and other film- related facilities on the land allotted to noted film director K Raghavendra Rao.

• D Ramanaidu of Suresh Productions and Annapurna Film Studios owned by Akkineni Nageswara Rao and family should charge reduced rentals for using their studio facilities and a 75 per cent fee discount for film aspirants from Telangana to study in their film institutes.

• Regular telecast of songs and films related to Telangana

A list of Telangana- theme films, from the ‘70s to the recent ones produced and exhibited during the agitation phase of 2009-2013 was displayed prominently at the venue. Speaking on the occasion, film director, C V L Narasimha Rao, hailed as the architect of the TFDS by fellow speakers lamented the fact that over the past seven decades that the Telugu film industry has existed, there are hardly any films which have focused on the region exclusively, barring the 20-odd that had been highlighted.

The others who followed spoke about freeing the industry from ‘control of a few families’ and mainstreaming the Telangana struggle and identity at the earliest.

Examples of discrimination of Telangana-based film artistes was rampant and needs to be wiped out declared another.