Tollywood joins Telangana stir

Joining hands with protagonists of Telangana , Tollywood observed a total shut-down of films in Telangana region with the Film Chamber expressing its solidarity with the agitation and agreeing to close down all theatres for two days.

This is the first time ever since the Telangana issue flared up, Tollywood, or the exhibitors and theatre owners have yielded to the bandh call given for the separatist cause on September 14 and 15.

As part of the Sakalajana bandh call given by Telangana JAC, around 480 theatres of the region have closed down. The bandh is not limited to single screen theatres. All multiplex theatres, like, Prasad’s, GVK, Cine Planet and others have put up boards expressing regret for their inability to screen film for two days.

The estimated loss for the two days, industry sources say, would be over 6 crore.

While multiplexes took over single screen theatres in city, in the districts mostly theatres are run the movies. In film parlance, the region called as Nizam, contributes to nearly 34 per cent of the revenue.

However, film activity continues for the two day, informed sources said. Only outdoor shooting activity may not take place due to the past experience but since the bandh is only for theatres, exhibitors are taking part in it, the sources said. All indoor activity, including shooting, dubbing, recording rehearsals will go on, the sources pointed out. There was some trouble at outskirts yesterday when the shooting activity of Ravi Teja film was stalled on the city outskirts by Telangana agitators.  

U Naryana Murthy, known for his revolutionary roles, has voluntarily postponed the release of his film “Poru”.

Only Ram-Hansika starrer Kandireega is the only picture that is doing well and collections may affected this flick directed by Santhosh Sreenivas.

Doubts were raised over the much touted audio release of Jr NTR starrer Oosaravelli. The sources point out that the bandh is confined only to closing down of theatres and the audio release would go as per schedule at Shilpakala vedika on September 15 evening. The audio release has been the much awaited event where a galaxy of film personalities are scheduled to attend.

Otherwise protagonists of Telangana and Tollywood Moghus were at logger heads and have a diametrically opposite view point on Telangana. Last year, there were numerous attacks on film units shooting at the outskirts involving top names like Manchu Mohan Babu’s son, Mega star Chiranjeevi’s son Ram Charan Teja but the then Chief Minister K Roshaiah brokered peace  between the two warring factions.