Chiranjeevi: Tollywood Not Leaving

Endorsing CM Rosaiah's recent comments that after repeated shooting disruptions and violence against it by Telangana statehood agitators, Tollywood was seriously contemplating shifting back to Chennai, erstwhile actor and Praja Rajyam Party chief Chiranjeevi said today that he will do his best to ensure that it does not happen.

It is a well-known fact that over the past 15 days, several Telugu film shootings - including those of Mahesh Babu, NTR Jr and Manchu Manoj - have been attacked by protestors for separate statehood for Telangana. Most shooting have stalled after that. Several high-profile Tollywood upcoming releases have, too - Adurs starring NTR Jr and Leader starring debutant Rana Daggubati being prominent among them - and some high-grossing films have been taken off theatres in Hyderabad and Telangana, most notable being Arya 2, by wary cinema hall owners.

In this scenario, upset cast and crew and suffering producers and directors are reportedly mulling over moving base to Chennai. As many old-timers know, it took over a decade of effort, most of it spearheaded by NTR as CM, to make Tollywood shift to Hyderabad from Chennai in the first place, and it finally happened in the '80s.

The industry shifting will have a serious impact on the livelihoods of all those thousands of people - junior artistes, technicians etc. - depending on it. Most of them would be locals and people from neighbouring districts.

In this context, Chiranjeevi's statement becomes soothing. The actor-politician said that several people in Telangana itself wanted the state to stay united, but that they were wary of violence against them if they spoke out. He said that he would tour the entire state to propogate the advantages of the state staying united.

He also said that undue importance was being given to the January 5 meeting of the state's political parties with the Union government, and that the meeting was only a stock-taking exercise where the Centre would merely hear from the parties, their views on the issue.

TRS leader Harish Rao meanwhile said that parties that do a flip-flop on Telangana would suffer the same fate as that of the PRP.