Hyderabad: Manchu Vishnu, actor and son of veteran Mohan Babu, scored a huge victory, 381-270, over his Chiranjeevi-backed opponent Prakash Raj and was elected president of the Movie Artists Association (MAA) in the elections held on Sunday.
The bitterly fought polls divided the film industry into the ‘Mega family’ camp of actor Chiranjeevi which backed actor Prakash Raj, versus the rest.
The election clearly put paid to Chiranjeevi’s assumption of being the next thespian after N.T. Rama Rao and Akkineni Nageswara Rao. The election appeared to push back the Kapu camp, with the Mega family at this head, and make space for the rival Kamma camp which is a major development in itself in Tollywood.
Unable to digest the crushing defeat, Chiranjeevi sought to undermine the very polls itself, stating that fighting over trivial posts was unhealthy and unwarranted. Throughout the campaign which saw a heated exchange of words between the rival groups, Chiranjeevi did not utter a word but on Sunday tried to dismiss the posts of MAA as “small” once Vishnu got elected.
Earlier in the morning, Chiranjeevi and his brother, Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, also sought to downplay the polls stating that it was much ado about nothing as the number of voters was hardly 1,000.
According to the industry insiders, the arrogant approach of another brother of Chiranjeevi, Nagababu, resulted in the Prakash Raj panel being forced to bite the dust. He was seen as being disrespectful of the elders like Kota Srinivasa Rao.
Vishnu’s slogan of “I am the son of the soil; I will be here available to serve you” worked for the actor. The industry preferred to reject an ‘outsider’ in Prakash Raj despite the backing from the ‘Mega’ family, though some of his panel members including actor Srikanth won posts.
Another setback to the ‘Mega camp’ was the defeat of Jeevita, wife of actor Dr Rajasekhar. Interestingly, while she was campaigning for the Prakash Raj panel, her husband met Mohan Babu. During his campaign, Prakash Raj recalled the instances where he questioned the Prime Minister which did not go down well, neither did his boast about winning a national award which no other actor had achieved.
It was stated that a record 665 out of 883 votes had been polled. The polling was extended by an hour due to the large turnout.
NEW OFFICE BEARERS
President: Manchu Vishnu (381) beat Prakash Raj (280)
Executive vice-president: Srikanth (375) defeated Babu Mohan (269)
Vice presidents: Benerjee, Madala Ravi
General secretary: Raghu Babu (340) beat Jeevita (313)
Joint secretaries: Uttej, Gowtham Raj
Treasurer: Siva Balaji (359) beat Nagineedu (292)
