Closing ceremony - Chitra Yatra 2007

The closing ceremony of 33 day long film festival ‘Chitra Yatra’ organized by Drusya foundation in Hyderabad was held at Harihara Kala Bhavan on the night of 17 July. Dasari Narayana Rao attended this function as chief guest along with Anam Ram Narayan Reddy (State Minister of cinematography and tourism). The other guests include MS Reddy, Buddhadev Dasgupta, B Narsing Rao, Sasidharan and Tammareddy Bharadwaja.

Drusya Foundation has many dreams - Tammareddy Bharadwaja
Speaking on the occasion Tammareddy Bharadwaja said, “People doubted Chitra Yatra success in the beginning, but we successfully completed it. 1200 people were registered and each screening attracted not less than 300 patrons. Drusya foundation organized Chitra Yatra as its first endeavor. We are in the process of setting up a library containing DVDs and music records. We collected around 4000 DVDs and 50,000 songs so far. The next HIFF (Hyderabad International Film Festival) is going to be organized with lot more participation from Telugu film industry. We are planning a world premiere each from Telugu, Hindi and English during that occasion. We also want to start a film institute. We request the government to provide a permanent venue for exhibiting art films and for conducting film festivals.”

Telugu film industry has good audiences - Buddhadev Dasgupta
Renowned Bengali director Buddhadev Dasgupta said, “Chitra Yatra introduced all the masterpieces of world cinema to the movie lovers of Hyderabad. It is just the beginning. Chitra Yatra will be one of the most important film festivals of India in the future. I am very impressed with the audiences here. They support cinema a lot. That is the reason why Telugu film industry is the biggest film industry in number films produced. With so much of support from the audiences, the filmmakers should do different films.”

HIFF from 21 to 27 January 2008 - B Narsing Rao
B Narsing Rao said, “We have separate complexes with multiple screens in Delhi, Calcutta, Goa etc, but we do not have such a facility in Hyderabad. Art films should be encouraged. We are planning to hold Hyderabad International Film Festival in a big way in 2008 from 21 January to 27 January. We should also make sure that children film festival organized in Hyderabad like we did earlier. We should also bring out film publications.”

We should preserve the negatives for the future of Indian cinema - Sasidharan
Sasidharan (NFAI, Pune) said, “It is an adventure to organize a festival like Chitra Yatra and B Narsing Rao succeeded in making it successful. Our filmmakers lack sensitivity to preserve films. Most of the producers stop bothering about the negatives of the films after commercial exploitation is over. We preserved the first silent Indian film ‘Raja Harishchandra’, but we do not have a copy of India’s first talkie film ‘Alam Ara’. Telugu film industry topped the production in the last year. I asked AP Film Development Corporation to send us Nandi award winning films so that we could preserve them in National Film Archive on India, Pune. But I did not get any prompt response from FDC.”

Slab system is being misused - Dasari
Dasari said, “I played a major role in getting Telugu film industry from Chennai to Hyderabad. MS Reddy also played a good role in that process. Only few people are attending the film festivals. There could be several reasons. But I find fault with the filmmakers and the system. If somebody makes a film under the budget of 50 lakhs, no exhibitor comes forward to screen it. We abolished slab system and waived off 2 Rs maintenance charge so that the exhibitor will screen small films. But exhibitors are exploiting the situation and are not encouraging small cinema. The stars who once took 10 lakh as remuneration are taking 5 crores today. The exhibitors are preferring big films. AP government is losing 120 crores due to tax rebate and the stars are making money exponentially by obstructing the growth of the industry and small filmmakers. Directors too are not maintaining balance.”

Remembering his days Dasari said, “I made Premabhishekam which collected 6 crores at that time. I did not try to cash it. But I followed it by making an award winning Megha Sandesam. That is how a director should balance his filmmaking. I shot Meena film with a budget of Rs. 1,25,000/- in 10 days time by taking Vijayawada as location. It got released with noon shows in 5 theaters. Slowly prints got increased and it ran for 100 days in 35 theaters.”

He also added, “FDC has 12 acre land in Hyderabad which can be used for future film festivals. Drusya Foundation is organizing this festival with passion. But it feels disheartening to see that no film industry personality in present here. I will support Drusya endeavors in the future. Films are always my first priority. I prefer dieing as darsaka ratna than a politician.”