It has been three days since megastar Chiranjeevi made the controversial remarks against some “elders”, expressing anguish over their comments on high remuneration charged by the Tollywood actors.
Within hours, the YSR Congress party leaders, including ministers in the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy cabinet, shot back at the megastar with strong retorts, though he did not make it any explicit comments against any of them.
A close observation of the video clip that surfaced on the social media revealed that he was obviously referring to the statements of some Rajya Sabha members during the debate on the bill to curtail piracy in films about the remuneration charged by the film actors.
He said being a Rajya Sabha member himself in the past, he had seen both the sides – politics and film industry and hence, he said, it was not proper to look at the remuneration issue as a national issue.
The controversy refused to die down even after three days, as the social media started enquiring which Rajya Sabha member he was referring to, who had made the comments on the remuneration of film stars.
Now, the answer came in the form of a tweet from YSRC general secretary and Rajya Sabha member V Vijay Sai Reddy.
He tweeted that film industry had not fallen from heaven and it cannot claim to be independent without any connection with the government.
“Whether it is film stars or politicians, they can survive only if they get the patronage from the people. In fact, it is the responsibility of the government to look after the welfare of the poor artistes and labourers of the film industry. They are also human beings,” he said.
Sai Reddy went on to add that nobody can question the government why it was bothered about the film industry workers and why they should bother about the government.
“The government has every right to talk about the film industry,” he said, without mentioning the name or comments of Chiranjeevi.
Apparently, Sai Reddy argued that film industry was not the fiefdom of heroes.
“Cinema does not mean only hero; it involves thousands of people. So, the present situation of heroes charging huge remuneration, thereby increasing the production cost, should be done away with,” he argued.
So, it was obvious that Chiranjeevi had indirectly referred to the observations made by Sai Reddy in Rajya Sabha. That was why the entire YSRCP reacted sharply!
