Even seven months after the release of Allu Arjun's starrer Pushpa, the influence of the hero's mannerisms and dialogues continue to rock the classrooms in many government schools across Chittoor and Annamayya districts, which form the gateway to the red sanders-rich Seshachalam hill ranges.
As the Chittoor dialect used in the film is endemic to the region, the dialogues of Pushpa could easily dig into the young minds. Like adding fuel to fire, their passion for the film is being exploited by some unknown manufacturers of certain snacks named after the film with the wrappers sporting the images of the hero, having dialogues like "Pusha ante flower anukuntivah - Pushpa ante fire" (Do you think Pushpa is a flower, Pushpa is fire). Other images showed the hero uttering other popular dialogues such as "Thaggede Le". These wrappers are bereft of any address or the manufacturer or the date of packaging.
Targeting schoolchildren, particularly in the age group of 5 to 10, the unknown dealers are supplying “Pushpa snacks” to the petty shops and makeshift kiosks under trees close to the schools in towns and villages bordering Chittoor and Tamil Nadu.
A senior Telugu teacher of a government elementary school in Nagari municipality said that the children aged 5 to 7 years were most vulnerable to the lure of “Pushpa” snacks. “Each student is purchasing at least three to four packets per day. After eating the contents, the wrappers are preserved,” she said. Another teacher said there was a fallacy among the children that if they could collect 100 wrappers, they would get an opportunity to meet the hero.
"And a collection of 500 wrappers would enable them to act in the Pushpa III part," quipped a headmaster at a government school in Nindra. He admitted that his grandson had so far collected close to the target number, while several of them were destroyed by his parents.
Nadhamuni (40), a parent of two children at Piler mandal, said that the spurious “Pushpa” snacks also had generated a wrong idea among the children. Holding the wrappers in their hands, the schoolchildren feel on cloud nine walking the Pushpa way, with a drooping shoulder and wielding toy pistols, it is observed.
A shop owner close to a school in Nagari said that she could sell close to 100 “Pushpa” snack packets, each at ₹5. “I get each packet for ₹2, and the profit and sales are guaranteed,” she said.
Responding to the development, District Educational Officer (Chittoor) Shriram Purushottam said that any packaged eatables without mention of the permissions and addresses of the manufacturers would not be allowed to be sold close to schools. Criminal action would be there against such violations, he said.
