HYDRAA sends ripples in Tollywood; Telugu cinema bigwigs get into huddle

Post the demolition of N Convention, it is learnt that discussions have taken place among a few bigwigs in Tollywood.

Hyderabad: Is there a much bigger plot behind Saturday’s demolition of Tollywood star Akkineni Nagarjuna’s N Convention Centre at Madhapur by the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Protection Agency (HYDRAA)? The move, apart from rattling Tollywood, has made bigwigs from the industry go into huddle and also rally behind the actor.

HYDRAA had pulled down the structure stating that it was illegal and stating that it occupied a sizable area of the Tummadikunta Lake.

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While this is one side of the coin, the other side raises a few questions. Post the demolition of N Convention, it is learnt that discussions have taken place among a few bigwigs in Tollywood.

They are said to have had discussions on multiple factors, including on steps to be taken to handle the current situation, besides charting out a future course of action. Industry sources say that though on the outside, the demolition is being made to appear as a move to score political brownie points, it is also a pressure tactic to make the industry bigwigs explore other plans, specifically towards Andhra Pradesh.

It may be recalled that after the Chandrababu Naidu government, in its first term, had earmarked over 5,000 acres for a media city at Ananthavaram near Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple. This apart, 20 to 30 acre plots were earmarked for allotment for establishing different studios.

Recently, a team of senior film producers had met AP Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan at Vijayawada after he was elected to power. Apart from leading producers like Allu Arvind, C Aswini Dutt and AM Rathnam, a few others also participated in the meeting, during which they are learned to have discussed measures to be adopted for reducing film production costs, improving distribution and most importantly, developing infrastructure to help the film industry further prosper in Andhra Pradesh.

In the past too, former Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy had made a few open offers to actors, producers and directors here to relocate to Andhra Pradesh. He had even assured them to allot lands for establishing film studios in Visakhapatnam and other places.

Though it is not clear whether the discussions after the N Convention demolition were centred around these, there are hints that AP was very much a topic.

In the meanwhile, it is also learnt that a few people have also expressed their objections over the Gaddar awards, citing that he was not connected with movies. The Revanth Reddy government had constituted a committee with veteran filmmaker B Narsing Rao as its chairman and producer Dil Raju as vice chairman.

The Committee has been constituted to formulate guidelines, rules and regulations and a logo for Gaddar awards to be presented achievers in film industry. This has not gone down too well with many in Tollywood, it is learned.