Star producer Dil Raju, who comes with decades of experience as a distributor and producer, contested this year's Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce elections against C Kalyan. The 'Game Changer' producer will now be the President of the Chamber. The margin of Rjau's victory is not massive. Muthyala Ramdas will be the Vice President, while KL Damodar Prasad and Prasanna Kumar have been elected as the Secretary and the Treasurer, respectively.
All eyes are now going to be on what Raju does to address the concerns of small producers. Before the elections, C Kalyan alleged that Raju is a dominant personality who doesn't work in the interest of small producers. As a counter, the 'F2' and 'Varisu' producer said that the Big Four (including himself) of the industry are always targeted needlessly. "We together run only 400 theatres. What about the rest 1200 theatres in the Telugu States? They are not in our control. As for the VPF issue, Qube Cinema is a force to reckon with across India, not just the Telugu States," Dil Raju said.
Interestingly, Dil Raju didn't make tall promises to producers in the run-up to the elections. He only suggested that sincere attempts will be made towards making the film industry a better place. "What is possible will be done," he suggested.
Last August, Raju and a few other big producers announced an industry-wide strike for a month so that issues pertaining to burgeoning production costs could be rectified. C Kalyan's panel mocked Raju recently for failing to achieve anything concrete despite the strike.
