Shocker to Dil Raju from Telugu Film Producers Council

HYDERABAD: A past squabble between distributor Warangal Sreenu & 'Dil' Raju is quite familiar with the people of the film industry & ardent followers of Telugu cinema. The spat which started with 'Petta' in 2019, is still continuing today. One of the recent competitions they both had was for 'Liger', brought by Warangal Sreenu

In 2019, the much-hyped 'Vinaya Vidheya Rama' & the so-called family entertainer 'F2' confirmed their dates along with 'NTR: Kathanayakudu' while 'Superstar' Rajinikanth's 'Petta' also confirmed its release.

Even Karthik Subbaraj attended the Telugu promotional event conducted by the distributor Warangal Sreenu. In the twist of events, theatre allocation was majorly done to the local films, leaving small theatres & centres for 'Petta'.

This issue was blown out and 'Dil' Raju went on the record saying native films shall be given priority as they are our own & other dubs shall be allocated after these. It looks like the tables have turned with 'Varisu', which the makers 'Dil' Raju & Vamsi Paidipalli has confirmed to be a straight Tamil & a dubbed one in Telugu, and shall be released for Pongal.

Avoiding another fiasco, the Telugu Film producer council issued a press note stating 'Only Telugu straight films should be given preference during Sankranti and Dussera festivals'.

The council issued a press statement, highlighting the previous comments made by Dil Raju, giving him no room to defend Varisu and get maximum theatres for the same as it is scheduled for a release during Sankranthi next year.

The following is the statement of the council:

Keeping in view the increased cost of production of Telugu films, the welfare of Producers and to save the Telugu Film Industry, the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce has in its Emergency Meeting held on 08.12.2017 passed a resolution that "Only Telugu straight Films should be given preference during the festivals of Sankaranthi and Dassera."

In this connection, noted Producer and the present Vice-President of Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce Sri Dilraju has categorically informed through Media in the year 2019 stating that how can we give Theatres to Dubbed Telugu movies during the festivals and therefore the first preference shall be given to Straight Telugu Movies for screening in Theatres and the remaining will be given to Dubbed Telugu movies during festivals. Therefore, the Telugu Film Producers Council requests the Exhibitors to invariably implement this decision " Only Telugu straight Films should be given preference during the festivals of Sankranthi and Dassera for screening in Theatres and the remaining may be given to Dubbed Telugu Movies".

The press note is indirectly targeted at Dil Raju where the council want to put him in a spot and ensure that he would not prioritize Varisu while allocating theatres. For now, Dil Raju is silent and we have to see what he has to say on the issue.