Council to downsize 'bigwigs', restore respect for small producers

More than 1,200-odd producers are going to elect their new body to take of their welfare of producers, which has been neglected till date. Although some posts have been 'unanimous' but there is a fight for president and vice-president posts for Telugu Film Producers' Council on June 30. "Initially, there were two panels but industry bigwigs advised us to join hands and fight unitedly.

Most of the posts were declared unanimous and victory of other candidates is a mere formality," says producer C N Rao, who says that hundreds of small producers will heave a sigh of relief after the elections. "Council is meant to address the issues and grievances of small producers but no one cared about them for years. Now it is time for them to regain their respect and glory and fight back. Our office-bearers will be available 24/7 to resolve pre-release hiccups of producers, which wasn't there before," adds Rao.

The new body's agenda is to downsize and isolate the rival body-Guild, formerly Associated Producers of Telugu LLP- which boasts of 22 members now. "It is true that the rival body-Guild- boasts of names like Suresh Babu, Allu Arvind, Dil Raju, Vamshi Reddy, Damodar Prasad, Tagore Madhu and others but more than 1,000 members with us. Above all, our affiliation with Film Employees Federation of South India and All India Film Employees Confederation will give us an edge in resolving producers- cine workers woes," says Mohan Goud and adds "Bigwigs are busy running production houses, studios and theatres on lease, so have no time for small producers disputes," he adds.

These members are also going to fight with bigwigs to reduce the digital rental rates. "Right now, digital service operators in theatres are charging Rs 12,000 per week, which is unaffordable for small producers and we would demand its reduction" says producer Mohammed Nayeem and adds "We learnt that B-town producer Ronnie Screwvala has approached Competitive Commission of India against the monopolistic practices of multiplexes, so we will also move CCI against exorbitant rentals, ticket rates and seek online-booking booking for transparency in collections,"

"Right now, we have two channels and we will add more channels to our bouquet and ensure more ad cut for producers," adds Radha Rajeswari and adds "These producers even started the Chintraseema TV channel but it was a flop show. Just 20-odd producers cannot match the strength of 1200 members and another 1,200 producers who are going to begin making films. They don't give theatres and distribute films of newcomers, but only promote movies of members of four or five filmi families, which is unethical," Another producer Ramesh adds. "There are eyeing for the Rs 12 crore fund in the Council but they cannot touch even a rupee from it."