Rosaiah appeals to agitators to leave film industry alone, says it took ages to get it here from Madras
AP’s CM Rosaiah said, in a press meet today, that Tollywood is among the various industries that were being hit by the ongoing turmoil in the state. He expressed anguish at recent attacks on film stars and their movie sets by Telangana supporters.
He elaborated on how the Telugu film industry actually grew in Hyderabad. He referred to erstwhile CMs of the state, Sanjeeva Reddy, Brahamannda Reddy and Chenna Reddy, who had all tried hard to get the Telugu movie industry set up in Hyderabad while it was operating from Madras.
He said that most efforts were not met with success, and it took several decades of talks and efforts to convince industry biggies to move base here. He said that Akkineni Nageswara Rao, who was amongst the influential figures of the movie field then, was amongst the first to move, after which one by one, the rest of the fraternity shifted.
Recent years have seen Hyderabad hosting shootings of Bollywood as well, Rosaiah said. He said that it took the efforts of the management of Ramoji Film City – who had convinced producers and other heavy weights of the Hindi movie industry – to encourage the entry of Hindi films as well.
Rosaiah reminded people that several incentives and subsidies were given to film makers to offer a comfortable operating zone in the region of Hyderabad.
He referred to the recent attacks made on shootings of Allu Arjun, Manchu Manoj, Mahesh Babu and NTR Jr, and said that Mahesh Babu’s set had suffered losses amounting to Rs. 1.5 crores.
It was deplorable that years of hard work in building up the industry were now being rendered a waste, he said. He mentioned that Mohan Babu, Manchu Manoj’s father – also a superstar - had met him about the attacks, and that it was the CM who had discouraged him to begin the peace rally that the actor was planning.
The CM stressed that the film industry is not just about actors and actresses, but that there are thousands of employees involved, many of whom even hail from the Telangana region.
Rosaiah has appealed to the agitators to not undo all the efforts made to build Tollywood’s base in town. Film stars and makers are now wondering whether they should move out to Chennai, since they already have properties there, the CM said.
He said that irrespective of where we’re born, we all now belong to one state, and that people should understand the history behind its formation. Just as the movie industry took time and effort to grow, the formation of the state of Andhra Pradesh, too, took a lot to reach where it is today, he said.
When asked whether the CM was justified in calling off his cabinet meeting today in the wake of the Telangana bandh call, Rosaiah said that he was – it was necessary for the Chief Secretary’s staff to monitor the bandh situation constantly, and that it would not be fair to lock them up in a meeting in such circumstances.
Yesterday, the CM told the media that several industry giants were also putting their AP plans on hold owing to the unrest in the state. He named Bharat Forge, Peugeot, Lakshmi Mittal and the NTPC-BHEL joint venture, and the Sri Lanka-based Brandix Apparel as well. While Bharat Forge was considering moving to Gujarat, the Lakshmi Mittal group is now going slow on its expansion plans. These projects were to provide employment to tens of thousands of people cumulatively.