The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has come down heavily on Tollywood for its overt slant towards Telangana, and accused the industry of showing step-motherly treatment towards Andhra Pradesh.
Bhumireddy Ramgopal Reddy, director of the party’s training centre and former Secretary of Telugu Yuvatha, said the film industry was bending over backwards to please the Telangana government only to safeguard the landed properties and assets in and around Hyderabad, but leaving Andhra Pradesh high and dry. He recalled in this connection the way the film stars went on a sapling plantation spree after the Telangana government gave the ‘Harita Haram’ call and flooded the social media with their images. Mr. Reddy was particularly vocal about the “four families”, which he did not openly name, which ruled the tinsel town.
Maddipatla Suryaprakash,member of censor board, said the film industry deliberately projected Rayalaseema in poor light as the hotbed of factionalism and goondaism, while continuing to pamper Telangana. “You want us to watch your movies, but you don’t contribute to our growth. If this trend continues, even hardcore fans in Andhra Pradesh would desert such actors,” he cautioned, while issuing a veiled threat to attack the cinemas if the industry continued to take sides. He flayed actor K. Chiranjeevi for rushing to the aid of his caste leaders, but conveniently ignoring his home soil.
