BANGALORE: Members of the Kannada Film Producers Association (KFPA) staged a protest before the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) in Bangalore and have threatened an intense agitation if their issues have not been addressed within one month by the government and the KFCC.
Among other things, Kannada film producers are demanding the re-implementation of the seven-week ban of release of films of other languages in the state. In 2004, the Karnataka state government had passed an order banning the release of other language films for seven weeks from the date of first release under tremendous pressure from the Kannada film industry. The Supreme Court had stayed the government order restricting the films on the basis of language.
Most Kannada films are made on small budgets – about Rs 50 million or so each, as opposed to the Rs 500 million plus per film spent on producing Tamil and Telugu movies. Kannada film producers cannot compete with big bucks of this kind and fear that they will be wiped out.
The producers’ fraternity was protesting the last Friday’s release of a Telugu blockbuster ‘Magadheera’ in 32 theaters – 26 in Bangalore and 6 in other parts of Karnataka. The distributor of the Telugu film is KFCC treasurer KV Vijaykumar. Besides expelling him from the chamber, the KFCC has directed Vijaykumar to restrict the film to 21 theaters only from this Friday onwards.
‘Magadheera’ stars politician and Bollywood and Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi’s 32-year-old son Ram Charan Teja in the main lead. The film is produced by Allu Aravind and directed by Rajamouli.
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