Tollywood back to action

HYDERABAD: The `lights, camera, action' routine in Tollywood has resumed after more than a month of strike in the industry.
The movie "Kandireega" that opened a can of worms in Tollywood with the clash of local film fighters and those from Chennai on December 8, 2010 will itself resume shooting from January 17 if one were to go by what the film's hero Ram is saying.It is already a back to Mumbai-Hyderabad routine for heroine Richa Gangopadhyay.
Though the AP Film Chamber of Commerce and the Telugu Film Producers Council (TFPC) have not announced resumption of shootings, some under-production movies, held up due to the strike, are being completed.
"At least six movies have resumed shootings," A P Film Industry Employees Federation general secretary K Rajeshwar Reddy told TOI.
With the film chamber and producers council yet to thrash out differences with various sectors over cost-cutting and wages, the launch of new movies have been put on hold.
Film industry sources said if new films were to be launched, there would be a problem with dates of stars as they would have to first complete the movies on hand.
TFPC president M Shyam Prasad Reddy said various issues in the industry were being resolved and very soon Tollywood may return to its routine. "One has to get back to work, after all," he said.
It may be mentioned here that work in the Telugu film industry came to a standstill from December 8, 2010 after film fighters bashed up those from Chennai on the sets of the film `Kandireega'. Enraged by this, producers called for a bandh the next day. However, film workers declared a strike immediately after that for an indefinite period.
Though film workers held talks with the film chamber and called off their strike on the assurance that their wages would be revised by March 1, 2010, film producers decided not to go back for shootings until various other issues, especially cost-cutting matters, were resolved.
Some movie units simply resumed work as they had to complete their projects. That explains how three films are releasing this festive season and more are in the pipeline for this month end.