Stir in front of ‘errant’ theatres planned

Stir in front of ‘errant’ theatres planned

The film artistes and Kannada activists will stage a hunger strike before 6 city theatres where Veer-Zaara is being screened.
Deccan Herald

The Kannada filmdom on Monday decided to stage a hunger strike in front of all theatres screening new non-Kannada films in contravention of the three-week moratorium from Wednesday.

Besides, the Kannada film producers have decided to set up a legal cell to fight its case in the Supreme Court against an apex court ruling on the moratorium. The decision to this effect was taken at a State-level convention of various Kannada organisations, farmers and various employees’ associations, besides representatives of all sectors of the film industry in Bangalore.

The film artistes and Kannada activists will stage a hunger strike before six city theatres where new Hindi film Veer-Zaara is being screened. The protesters will participate in the strike in turns, demanding immediate withdrawal of the film screening, Kannada film producer S V Rajendra Singh Babu told reporters.

The entire film industry barring those screening non-Kannada films, will remain shutdown indefinitely. All production activities like shooting, recording, editing and related work will remain suspended. This will affect the life of over 10,000 people working as extras, light boys, camera assistants, makeup artistes, costume designers etc.

It was also decided against releasing new Kannada films till the issue is resolved. This, in other words, means that a host of new Kannada films - Shivarajkumar-starrer Rakshasa and Kanchanaganga, Ajay’s Surya The Great, Ramesh’s Joke falls, Darshan’s Sardara, Vishnuvardhan’s Jyeshta - that are ready to hit screens are unlikely to be released soon. Exhibitors will continue to screen Veer-Zaara and four theatres are planning to release the new Hindi film Hulchul.

The industry has also decided that film stars along with Kannada activists will mobilise support in the districts, beginning with the Rajkumar-led jatha to be held in Mysore shortly.