Telangana minister KTR on Thursday raked up the issue of Telugu film RRR losing out on the race for India’s official entry to the Oscars to Gujarati film Chhello Show and said no Telangana BJP leader has the guts to demand Telangana’s rights. Calling Gujarat the epicentre of Modiverse, KTR said BJP leaders from Telangana are not courageous enough to demand Telangana’s rights. “Ever ready to carry chappals of their Gujarati booses but can’t summon the courage to demand Telangana’s rights,” KTR said alluding to the incident of Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar carrying Union home minister Amit Shah’s footwear when the minister visited Telangana in August.
KTR’s jibe over the loss of SS Rajamouli’s RRR came after Prof K Nageshwar, a former MLC and Osmania University teacher, tweeted a few instances of how Telangana lost to Gujarat or ‘made to lose to Gujarat’, he implied. “Our RRR lost to Gujarati film Chhello Show in the race for oscar. Our Kazipet denied coach factory. Gujarat gets a locomotive factory. Our Hyderabad lost WHO centre to Jamnagar in Gujarat. Our Hyderabad International arbitration tribunal gets a competitor in GIFT city in Gujarat,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Film Federation of India selected Chhello Show as India’s official entry to the upcoming Academy Awards over Rajamouli’s RRR. Chhello Show is a Gujarati film directed by Pan Nalin. It is about a nine-year-old boy who is enamoured by the world of cinemas. Film Federation president TP Aggarwal said the decision to choose Chhello over RRR, Brahmastram Badhaai Do and The Nami Effect was unanimous. There were 13 films contending for the official selection tag.
BJP’s Amit Malviya, not in the context of KR’s latest jibe, however, said Telangana chief minister KCR’s ‘farmhouse republic’ is like Liger and not like Pushpa or Bahubali. His comment was in a reply to KTR’s question that when Pushpa, RRR and Bahubali can go pan-India, why KCR can’t go national. The Telangana minister said this in an interview with the Hindu. On this context, Malviya said, “The only Pushpa that has pan India appeal is the Lotus led by Bahubali Narendra Modi, under whose leadership, India is a Rapidly Reforming Rashtra (RRR). But why is KTR, like Aurangzeb, trying to dislodge KCR from power?