Nagarjuna Akkineni at Bangarraju press meet. (Photo: PR Handout) Nagarjuna Akkineni opened up about the rift between the Telugu film industry and the government of Andhra Pradesh, over the low pricing of movie tickets. The actor said that he did not have a problem from a commercial point of view.
At the press meet held in Hyderabad to reveal the release date of his film Bangarraju, Nagarjuna said, “We should not talk about political issues on a film stage. I won’t talk about it. I don’t have any issue from a commercial point of view (due to the difference in ticket rates in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana). If the ticket prices are high, collections will be a little higher, but I have no issues for my film.”
When asked about the reasons to release his film amid uncertainty over theatre occupancy due to the spike in coronavirus cases, he said, “It will be good if we have theatres functioning with full occupancy. But in the given circumstances, it is not there. We can’t simply hold a completed movie in our hands and sit. We want to release it. Yes, there will be a decline in the movie collections due to the low ticket prices. But those issues will not create a problem for this (Bangarraju) movie.”
Nagarjuna received much backlash on social media for the aforementioned comments.
The Andhra Pradesh government had recently formed a committee to look into the concerns of the Telugu film industry on the movie ticket rates. A case on the issue is pending in Andhra Pradesh High Court.
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