It is an open secret that Union minister K Chiranjeevi and former union minister Dasari Narayana Rao do not see eye to eye with each other, both in  the Telugu film industry as well as in politics. Now both are said to be vying with each other to take credit for the recent government's decision to remove Value Added Tax (VAT) on films.

It may be mentioned that the Central government had brought film industry under the purview of VAT and imposed a tax of 14.5 per cent on films. It has created an uproar in the film industry and chambers of commerce of Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam had several rounds of talks with the Centre requesting it to do away with the VAT. Dasari, too, had brought it to the notice of the Centre and requested chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy several times in this regard. The AP Film Chamber headed by Tammareddy Bharadwaja also met the chief minister quite a few times and submitted a representation.

The Chief Minister held discussions with his cabinet colleagues and officials concerned and finally issued orders abolishing the VAT on films, On coming to know about the government's decision, Chiranjeevi reportedly summoned a few persons from film industry and also a section of media. Next morning, there was a news in the media stating that the government had removed the VAT on  films due to relentless efforts of Chiranjeevi.

Obviously, it has angered Dasari group,including producer Natti Kumar, actors Jeevitha and Rajasekhar and Mohan Goud. They brought it to the notice of the media that the abolition of VAT was done due to intense lobbying by Dasari and not Chiranjeevi. They asserted that Chiranjeevi had never approached the government on behalf of the Film Chamber. They said they would meet the chief minister on behalf of the film chamber to thank him personally.