Star wars of a different kind

It is that time again when Telugu film actors are making news alien to their profession. Mahesh Babu, who was accused of trashing a video library in Warangal over a week ago, surrendered finally to a magistrate on Monday.

Jagapathi Babu is also being questioned by the police, not as an accused, but as a victim of a potential robbery. Police say Jagapathi has his guard, Chiranjeevi, to thank for the foiled robbery attempt by his cook Sharavanan.

"The suspect was attracted by the valuables in the actor's house," task force deputy commissioner of police Shiva Prasad said, after the cook and his five accomplices were arrested.

Sharavanan, hired a month ago, tried to rope in Chiranjeevi for the planned Sunday night heist but the guard told Jagapathi who went to the police.

Security guards of actors are definitely in the news. While actor Balakrishna's security guard had a tragic ending, Chiranjeevi's story has a happy ending. He got a Rs25,000 cheque from his grateful boss. "I shudder to think what would have happened to me if he had not warned me," Jagapathi said.

Instead, Mahesh Babu had to execute two sureties worth Rs5,000 each and a personal bond for the same amount to get bail in the case in which he and the director of his film Arjun were involved in trashing two video libraries and kidnapping one of the owners.

Speaking to journalists afterwards, the actor called for a concerted effort by government, people and the film industry to end video piracy. He said if unchecked, piracy would kill the film industry.

On the business side, film makers from all over India are waging a war of non-cooperation with Karnataka over its six week-old ban on non-Kannada films released simultaneously (to coincide with local ones) in that state. Members of the new joint action committee of the Indian Film Industry' on Wednesday decided to fight "non-cooperation with non-cooperation," G. Adiseshagiri Rao of Padmalaya Studios said.

Bollywood producer and director Yash Chopra said, "It is against the spirit of India. Only the people can decide what they want to see."

Bollywood's Pehlaj accused the Kannada film industry of supporting piracy and punishing other language films. "Just because a particular Kannada film did not do well, they can not hold other language films to ransom."

Now, the industry will impose an embargo on the entire Kannada film industry, including its actors, technicians and just about anybody involved and that includes even the ongoing process of dubbing some Kannada films.

Begun as a battle soon after the release of the Venkatesh starrer titled Gharshana which coincided with the release of a Kannada film with Rajkumar's son, Raghavendra Rajkumar acting in it, it has become a full-fledged star wars and the rest of the industry is determined to bring Karnataka to the negotiating table.