The report that a small-time maize merchant Kanna Rao from Rajahmundry in East Godavari district had purchased the Telugu dubbing rights for the forthcoming Rajnikanth block-buster film “Robot” has created sensation in the Telugu film industry.
It was definitely surprising news that a trader, who had hitherto unknown in the film industry and was no way connected to producing films, had bought the dubbing rights of a Tamil film by spending crores of rupees. Because, it is not a small affair on the part of a new entrant in the film industry to buy the dubbing rights for the film, despite its hype and craze, only for theatrical release (not the satellite rights) with huge amounts. Only those who know nitty-gritty of the film industry and have the capabilities to market the craze for Rajnikanth, can dare invest such massive money.
So, naturally, the people in the industry started wondering who this Kanna Rao was and whether he was genuinely interested in the film, or he was only a benami of any bigwig in the industry. For the last two days, several rumours were agog in the Tollywood and already, some sections have started probing into the mysterious background of this Kanna Rao.
Inquiries revealed that Kanna Rao is a close associate of director V V Vinayak, who in turn is a staunch follower of Chiranjeevi family and a right hand of Allu Aravind. Vinayak, who had earlier directed “Tagore” with Chiranjeevi, and “Bunny” with Allu Arjun, is now busy making the film “Badrinath” again with Allu Arjun as hero and Allu Aravind as its producer.
Now, the mystery is more or less cracked. There were rumours earlier that distributor Chadalavada Srinivas Rao who claimed to have bought the dubbing rights of Robot was denied the same only at the behest of some bigwig in the industry. It is now suspected that Chadalavada was sidelined and Kanna Rao was brought into picture only because Allu Aravind had evinced interest in the deal.
Interestingly, Kanna Rao had bought the dubbing rights at a much lesser rate than what was offered by Chadalavada. It is said the amount paid by Kanna Rao was less than the advance paid by Chadalavada to the Tamil producers. It clearly shows that it was not the higher rate offered by Kanna Rao, but something else that had played the role in selling the dubbing rights.
Aravind might not be successful in slitting the tongues of those who made allegations against Chiranjeevi blood bank, but he has once again proved successful in being a smooth operator in blackmailing the people in the film industry.
