April 25: A felicitation function for legendary actor Akkineni Nageshwar Rao has been stalled due to differences among the film fraternity. Although the Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce, the Movie Artistes Association and the Producers Guild had decided to honour the thespian for being awarded the prestigious Padma Vibhushan — the first time it has been awarded to an actor — a small section of the industry has forced the felicitation to be shelved. Personal animosity between bigwigs in the industry is said to be the reason for this unfortunate state of affairs.
However, Mr Ram Subba Reddy, president of the APFCC has denied this. “Nothing of the sort; we were discussing it but the sudden strike has hampered it. We will definitely revive the discussions,” he said.
According to industry sources, a couple of filmmakers were out to sabotage the function saying it should be clubbed with felicitations of other Padma awardees, such as veteran actor Krishna (Padma Bushan), and actor Mohan Babu and playback singer S.P. Balasubramaniam (both Padma Sri).
“They didn’t object when we felicitated filmmaker Ram Naidu for bagging the Dada Saheb Phalke award and even actor Krishna magnanimously attended Ram Naidu’s function. But now the demand to ‘club’ all the winners is just an excuse to stall ANR’s felicitation. A leading filmmaker even threatened to stage a dharna if it is held,” rues a source in the council.
