Tollywood to put off releases

Unnerved by attacks on theatres and the prevalent political unrest, the Telugu film industry is planning to postpone all movie releases slated for this month.

This decision was taken by the producers’ council which met on Wednesday in the wake of Telangana agitators attacking theatres screening Allu Arjun’s Arya-2, Ram Charan Teja’s Magadheera and Manchu Mohan Babu and his son Vishnu’s Saleem.

The producers’ council will hold another meeting with exhibitors, distributors and other stakeholders on Thursday to take a final decision on postponing the movie releases.

Adurs starring Junior NTR and Leader starring Daggubati Rana are two big films slated for release this month.

Theatres are expected to screen old popular movies and non-Telugu films in theatres across the state till the end of this month.

“There is political unrest in the state and people are not coming to theatres to watch films,” said Mr Vijandar Reddy, member of the AP Film Chamber of Commerce. “Collections have dropped drastically and it doesn’t make sense to release movies in such turbulent times.”

Mr Shyam Prasad Reddy, president of the producers’ council, however, said that a final decision on postponing releases had not been taken yet.

“It is a business that involves crore of rupees,” he said. “A few producers brought up the idea of postponing the releases. We will take the final decision on Thursday.”

Meanwhile, actor Mohanbabu, who pledged his support to United Andhra Pradesh, has declared that he will go on hunger strike at Tirupati against the separation of the state.

“These attacks are the handiwork of some miscreants,” he said. “They cause losses to people from all the regions in the state.”

While many actors refused to comment on the attacks fearing backlash from agitators, senior filmmakers claimed that they will not shift their base from Hyderabad even if Telangana state is formed.

“It is foolish for agitators to attack the films of family members of Chiranjeevi and Mohanbabu just because they declared their stand,” said Mr Thammareddy Bharadwaja, senior filmmaker. “We are here to entertain people. We are not doing any anti social activity.”