Tollywood is an interesting place. Here, elections to bodies with just a few hundred members hog limelight for all the wrong reasons. In 2021, the Movie Artists Association elections witnessed controversies on a daily basis. An artist who nominated himself to run for President held a presser, enjoyed taking loaded questions from the media, countered the scribes to feel important, and silently withdrew his candidature a couple of days later after it was evident that he wouldn't secure even 20-30 votes. The two major candidates - Manchu Vishnu and Prakash Raj - stayed the course to make more controversial statements. All this hungama in the full glare of the media over things that affect just 1000 members. Just 1000.
This time, it is the turn of the Telugu Film Producers Council to be in the news. Elections to different offices of TFPC were held on Sunday, with KL Damodar winning the election as President. Two Vice-President candidates were elected unopposed.
As per reports, TFPC was divided between the camps led by Dil Raju and C Kalyan before the poll. In the event, Raju's panel put up a spectacular show. The star producer himself turned out to be one of the elected members of the EC, securing the highest number of votes among the winners.
While the election is over, it is evident that not all is well between the Tollywood producers. MAA elections proved artists were divided. TFPC elections proved producers, too, are divided. Tollywood continues to be a divided house.
It is not like these differences are leading to fruitful results. Last August, Active Producers Guild (which is reportedly going to be merged with TFPC soon) announced a month-long strike to reduce production costs. What happened after that? Recently, producer S Naga Vamsi suggested that nothing much happened. Producers have figured out that it's not possible to bring uniformity or herald norms that artists (especially big stars) and star directors can be made to adhere to. After so much brouhaha last year, star heroes and directors continue to be paid by producers as they deem fit on a case-by-case basis.
It has to be seen what will happen this time, now that Dil Raju's panel is in a dominant position in the TFPC.
