Avamaanam

Remember the previous film festival conducted in Hyderabad, a wonderful and a glorious trip to world cinema. It had the support of everyone, the media, the public and the event was conducted sans pomp, show and all the people who were talented got their due. The memories still linger and you can’t forget one man who made it happen…Tammareddy Bharadwaja. He stood like a wall poster throughout, and then shuttling from one theatre to the other to see the prints arrived on time, that the press meets were being held at scheduled, playing host to the outstation guests, etc. etc. There were other volunteers too who chipped in their bit and we got what we wanted…Hyderabad got the mileage, much more than ever. Tammareddy excitedly told Cinema Prapancham a couple of months back that the film fest is due and they are all geared up to better the show.

Today a meet was held to announce the Hyderabad Film Festival which will take place from the third of January onwards to the 10th. The chairman is Dasari Narayana Rao and the advisors are CC Reddy, Ramanaidu, Ramesh Prasad, Kotagiri Venkateswar Rao, MS Reddy, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao and Nagababu. A few of them were absent at the meet today. What’s sad is the man who played a vital role in the success of the film fest earlier Tammareddy Bharadwaja is not a part of the event.

The director along with Narsing Rao started a foundation called Drushya and recently a chitra yatra was held and all the world classics including Harischandra was showed to the public. One cannot understand why a man who played an integral role (let’s confine ourselves to the film fest) has not even been invited to the press meet forget about his inclusion in the advisory committee. Are people jealous because he got a lot of publicity in the film fest, is it because he is brutally frank, is it because he slighted people in the industry by not inviting them personally? Is it because he didn’t give due respect to people in high places? Or is it because he sought an explanation as to where the 27 lakhs collected from the film fest went? Why is Prakash Reddy the director of the festival keeping mum?

In one of my posts I had reported that Tammareddy invited Dasari but the latter was not accessible over the phone. A lot of people were not available, some cited security reasons. Ramanaidu came only because his film Hope was being screened. He extended help only after he became a part of the press meet. Whether it’s Tammareddy or any X Y Z, isn’t it proper to atleast let the man know that he is not a part of the committee this time? We thought Vajrotsavam taught us many lessons, but the fact is we will never learn. Many anniversaries will come and go but we can never let go off our petty minds, we will never grow up! All this at the cost of Hyderabad and we are talking of our stalwarts being on the world map!!!