Film producers meet cops over Bhanu Kiran links

HYDERABAD: Perturbed over the investigation taken up by the city police into the alleged links of gangster Bhanu Kiran with Tollywood, few prominent producers including Allu Aravind met officials of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Friday.
Sources in CID told TOI that the producers were concerned that some members of the industry, including producer Natti Kumar, were trying to threaten members of the film fraternity ever since Bhanu laid bare the shady links between the mafia and film producers.Based on the complaint lodged by Natti Kumar, CID officials have already registered cases against few prominent producers and financiers.
Besides Allu Aravind, producers K Ashok Kumar and ML Kumar Chowdary met director general of police V Dinesh Reddy and CID additional director general of police S V Ramana Murthy on behalf of the film chambers and expressed their concern. ``They requested us to check the veracity of complaints before registering cases against members of the film industry,” sources said.
The CID officials have so far registered cases against producers C Kalyan, S Ramesh and Anjaneya Gupta based on the complaint lodged by Natti Kumar. Industry members are apprehensive that Kumar is getting ready to name others.
The chamber members reportedly told police that disputes between film distributors, producers and financiers is common. But they suggested the police to book case only if prima facie evidence is found. The producers who met the police officials were tight-lipped and played down their visit.