Producer booked in assault case

HYDERABAD: No one can dare mess up with the Big Boss of the Telugu film industry. We are talking about Telugu film producer C Kalyan, a close friend of factionist Maddelacheru Suri's alleged killer Bhanu, who is on the run, is facing a police case for assault. It has come to light that the incident had taken place just two days before Suri was shot dead in the city allegedly by Bhanu on January 2.
However, Kalyan and three others were arrested only on January 4 by the Raidurgam police who booked cases under IPC section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) against them for the incident on December 31, 2010.The producer and his associates got bail. The punishment for the offence could be up to three years in prison, if convicted.
Kalyan got into a fracas over the demolition of the compound wall of his plot at Chitrapuri colony of AP cine workers in Manikonda by his neighbour.
The producer reportedly owns four plots in the colony. One of the neighbours T Kailash Singh allegedly demolished part of Kalyan's compound wall following which the producer rushed to the spot with his associates.
In the arguments and jostling that followed, Kalyan who appeared bent upon showing his might bashed up one of the associates of T Kailash Singh, who suffered bleeding injuries on the left eye.
"When we received a complaint, we registered a case against the producer and others," Raidurgam circle inspector M Ravichandan Reddy said.
Contacted by TOI for his version of the incident, Kalyan denied that he was even at the spot when the incident purportedly took place. "Just because a complaint was lodged against me, the police booked a case against me. When an attempt was being made to encroach on my land, my security people tried to prevent it," Kalyan said.
It may be mentioned here that soon after Suri was killed and the preliminary investigation of the police pointed to Bhanu's role in the crime, Kalyan, in an interaction with the media, tried to come to his friend's rescue by stating that it was unlikely that Bhanu could have resorted to the act.
In recent times, the spotlight has been on Kalyan in the Telugu film industry as he raised eyebrows by producing some big budget films involving some of top Tollywood stars.
Pawan Kalyan-starrer `Puli' and Mahesh Babu's `Mahesh Khaleja', both big budget films were produced by Kalyan along with Singanamala Ramesh last year. Kalyan bought the distribution rights of Ram Gopal Varma's `Rakta Charitra' making him practically the producer of the Telugu version.
Kalyan is also the producer of another big budget movie `Parama Veera Chakra' starring Balakrishna and directed by Dasari Narayana Rao which released on Wednesday.
With Kalyan flexing his muscles by showing his power by being part of practically every big budget film in Tollywood, many eyebrows are being raised in Tollywood. Since he was also close to Maddelacheru Suri, the suspicion gained ground that Suri was routing his money through friends like Kalyan into the film industry.
Kalyan reportedly began as an office boy and rose to occupy important positions in the Telugu film industry bodies. He is now the president of South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce.