CM vows to shield film industry from attacks

Hyderabad, Dec 30: Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Wednesday asserted that the Tollywood as a business venture has grown by leaps and bounds into a major industry due to the Government efforts in the initial years. The effort paid dividends for the industry, which is next only to Bollywood today and hence, it is the Government’s responsibility to protect the industry from regionalism and terrorism, Rosaiah said.Addressing media persons here, the Chief Minister said the industry’s growth was attributed to the combined efforts of all the artistes, a majority of whom are basically Telugus.

 He recalled that though senior actors Prabhakar Reddy, Kantha Rao and Rajanala belonged to Andhra Pradesh, they worked in Madras studios. With the shifting of the Telugu industry to Hyderabad, Tollywood became a major centre of growth in the South, which attracted even film personalities from Bollywood.Rosaiah came down heavily for the attacks on the crew at Pet Basheerbagh while they were shooting for Lakshmi Prasanna Productions’ film with Manchu Manoj Kumar in the lead. Attack on the son of actor Mohan Babu was purely political vendetta as the actor supported Samaikhya Andhra movement, Rosaiah said.

The attack on the crew led by actor Allu Arjun, nephew of actor and politician K Chiranjeevi was also politically motivated because the Praja Rajyam Party leader extended his support to the integrated Andhra Pradesh movement, Rosaiah asserted.However, the Chief Minister failed to understand why the Telangana activists attacked the crew filming Mahesh Babu although the actor is apolitical in his attitude. However, adequate security would be provided to film personalities in the state and no vandalism would be tolerated that might affect the film industry adversely, the Chief Minister thundered.