Controversies rock Tollywood: From Mohan Babu’s family feud to Allu Arjun’s stampede tragedy and more

Known always for its closely-guarded privacy, the Telugu film industry is now embroiled in a series of controversies. In fact, this year many a top personality had faced controversies. What will 2025 hold for the tollywood?

Hyderabad: Telugu film industry has long been considered an entity devoid of controversies with people who value their privacy. This year, however, proved to be not-so-lucky for the industry. As the year is inching towards the end, a close look at the Telugu film industry would reveal how the actors, choreographer and directors were embroiled in different controversies, especially towards the latter part of the year.

Right from senior actors like Mohan Babu, and popular actor Allu Arjun to ace director Ramgopal Varma and choreographer Jani master, the Telugu cinema has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this year.

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Veteran actor Mohan Babu’s family has been involved in disputes for various reasons over the past few years. While last year a feud broke out between the Manchu brothers — Vishnu and Manoj — leading to finger-pointing and blame games, this year saw a big argument unfolding between Mohan Babu and his youngest son Manoj due to property disputes.

Mohan Babu claimed that his son Manoj and daughter-in-law Mounika tried to forcibly take over his house at Jalpally. Both the actors lodged separate complaints with the police regarding the incident. In the melee, the veteran actor lost his cool and hit a journalist with a microphone. Following this incident, a case has been booked against Mohan Babu.

 Allu Arjun

In another incident, National Award winner Allu Arjun courted controversy recently due to a tragedy that took place during the premiere show of his latest release ‘Pushpa 2: The Rule’. On December 4, a stampede-like situation at Sandhya Theatre in Hyderabad led to the death of a 35-year-old woman and hospitalisation of her son in a critical condition.

A case has been booked against the actor, who was presented in Nampally court on Friday after his arrest. After the court sentenced 14 days custody, the High Court granted him an interim bail.

Jani Master

In September, National Award-winning choreographer Jani Master was booked by the Raidurgam police following a complaint by a woman that he had sexually assaulted her. On October 24, the dance master was granted bail by the High Court. He was also involved in different controversies in the past.

Ramgopal Varma

On November 25, two police teams from Andhra Pradesh landed at ace director Ramgopal Varma’s residence in Hyderabad to arrest him. The director was accused of sharing edited images of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, and their family members. However, the filmmaker was later permitted to attend the investigation virtually.

Akkineni Nagarjuna

Superstar Akkineni Nagarjuna’s family was also dragged into a controversy by Forest Minister Konda Surekha who made derogatory comments against the family. She had accused that BRS working president KT Rama Rao was responsible for the divorce of actors Naga Chaitanya and his ex-wife Samantha.

Defaming KT Rama Rao, the Minister also dragged another actor Rakul Preet Singh’s name through mud. Taking to their respective social media accounts, both Samantha and Rakul reacted to Surekha’s objectionable language and derogatory remarks and asked her to leave them out of politics.

Taking serious objection, the entire film industry rallied around the actors targeted by the Minister, while actor Nagarjuna had filed a defamation suit against the Minister on October 4 in Nampally court.

Amid such disturbances, one can only hope that the dust settles soon and the film industry sees many more milestones, bringing laurels and creating global impact.