Hyderabad: The film industry faces an uphill task after bifurcation. A few Telangana filmmakers are now demanding a division of the AP Film Chamber of Commerce too. Commenting on the issue, Dil Raju says, “We have a Telangana Film Chamber and an AP Film Chamber, but we wanted to come up with a Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce. It’s not wrong to change the name as we wanted to develop Telugu cinema by co-ordinating with the two state governments.”
He says that the demand made by a few Telangana filmmakers is meaningless. “Most of the people who are agitating have a personal agenda. They don’t have any agenda for common development.
“Apart from me is there any other person they can accuse?” asks Dil Raju, when asked about why he was being accused of lack of support even when he represents Telangana. He added that in Hyderabad only 22 theatres are in his control and even if they want to scrap the lease system he would be the first person to sign it. He added, that some of the top directors like Harish Shankar, Vamsi Padipalli who were introduced by him are from Telangana. “Cinema is a business and nobody wants to lose money. Even I have submitted a note to the government for the development of cinema in Telangana state. We have to come up with more acting schools, but this can happen only with the help of the Government,” he says.
“For my film Kerintha I searched for actors in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. But I could only short-list three actors,” he says.
