An open letter to Idlebrain.com visitors
Plight of the Telugu Film Industry

Dear idlebrain.com

I am writing this letter with lot of anguish. Anguish because the Telugu film industry is not getting its due. The whole world thinks that there is nothing beyond Bollywood in the Indian film world, although, as a matter of fact, more number of films are being made in languages other than Hindi and particularly in Telugu.

As a result of the relentless onslaughts of linguistic imperialism, practised by successive governments at the center, Hindi is now widely understood in the whole of India and consequently, Hindi films have come to enjoy whole of India as their market place. Therefore, they are in a position to make movies in Hindi on lavish scales and unleash them on the masses. In other words, Hindi movies are being subsidized unwittingly by the ignorant non-Hindi masses (educated, of course).

It is another matter that because of the proven role of the underworld in the production of Hindi films, the non-Hindi film-going masses of this country are indirectly supporting the nefarious activities of the underworld, again unwittingly.

There is a ray of hope, however. In spite of its limited market, Telugu film industry continues to flourish because of a combination of many factors: enterprising nature of the Telugu film producers, availability of the largest number of cinema halls in the state, enthusiastic support given to the Telugu film industry by the film-going public etc.

Many distortions abound, however, the principal one being the invasion of the industry by a seemingly endless stream of northern ladies such as Arti agarwal, sonali joshi, bhoomika, Sriya, Keerthi Chawla, Richa etc., although there is no dearth of acting beauty or talent in our state. (Laya etc.) Same is the sorry state of affairs with regard to the playback singing. It is disgusting to find people like Udit Narayan, Sukhbir Singh etc. sing for Telugu films, even though it is clear to all that they are murdering the Telugu language.

Now, let's move on to the latest Hindi flick Devdas, which has been made lavishly, thanks to the anticipated subsidy provided by the non-Hindi movie-going public; first of all, the film doesn't need to be made so lavishly. Already there are reports that this version of 'Devdas' is the worst of all. In all the previews of the film, there have been ample references to the earlier versions of 'Devdas', all without exception making comparison with the socalled classic made by Bimal Roy. Now consider this: the lead actor of that film 'Dileep Kumar' is reported to have acknowledged that our ANR has done the role of Devdas much better than him. Yet, there is no mention anywhere of the Telugu film 'Devadasu' or ANR, who immortalized the role of Devadasu.

I want to ask all those Hindi film guys why, it is made out that the whole Indian film world revolves around Hindi films only, in spite of the fact that great films are being made in India in languages other than Hindi. Are they blind or egoistic or arrogant? Why this frog-in-the-well approach?

Where does all this leave us, the commoner, the average Telugu movie-goer? I am sure, majority of the movie-going public does not support whatever is happening now, which is inimical to the Telugu film industry. But, alas, we have no say; we just have to put up with the antics of the producers, who are doing whatever they are doing, with the mistaken belief that the general public likes it.

No, we don't like the import of people into the Telugu film industry from elsewhere, who can't mouth the Telugu language; who have to communicate with their co-workers in English. And if they don't know English, our homegrown male stars are chivalrous enough to carry on the conversation in Hindi just to put the white-skinned (relatively speaking) ladies at ease.

I am an avid filmgoer and I know that the Telugu film industry is in the pink of health because of the support it is receiving from people like me. In my desire to support the industry, I am made to put up with a lot of nasty things. I am sure these thoughts of mine will find much support from many quarters. People have to express themselves and correct the current course of the Telugu film industry.

I want the IDLEBRAIN to bring to focus, the points I have raised in my letter. IDLEBRAIN should be the forum for all such thought provoking ideas as those expressed here. There is plenty of talent available in our state, if only we care to look around. If we can't look after our interests, then who else will?

I have only one wish on my mind: that the Telugu film industry should continue to flourish and we all should lend a helping hand to this end.

C.V.S. Murty

[email protected]

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