Hyderabad, May 22: A film producer, who is also a Telugu Desam MLA, tried to kill himself today by jumping into the Hussain Sagar lake before the eyes of his family after a business dispute over a failed movie turned nasty.

C. Venkat Rao, already upset at a disappointing debut by his mega-budget film Narasimhudu, had just learnt that 32 distributors and theatre-owners of Visakhapatnam had filed a criminal case against him.

Rao, who had accepted an advance of Rs 1.2 crore from the distributors and theatre-owners, had told them yesterday he wouldn’t release the film in their region unless they forked out another Rs 1.5 crore, sources close to his family said.

“He was hoping the film would fare well at the box office,” a source said. “He wanted to cash in on that.”

The producer, who had apparently been flooded with threat calls from distributors since last night, was travelling in his Mercedes Benz with his family when he suddenly seemed to lose it, his family said.

Bang in the middle of the 2 km bund flanking the Hussain Sagar, he asked that the car be stopped. He got off the car, climbed over the bund’s railings and jumped into the murky waters.

Rescued by the police after the family raised the alarm, the MLA told the media from his hospital bed that he had decided to end his life because the failure of his business plan had earned him, his family and the party a bad name.

Rao is out of danger but the police have booked him in a case of attempt to suicide.

The Rs 20-crore film had been mired in controversy right at the outset. Its release was delayed by a day over a financial dispute with distributors, sparking street riots by angry fans. When it was finally released on Saturday, in Hyderabad and some other parts of the state, the fans were disappointed.

“The film lacks zing,” said 16-year-old Saivenugopal. The audience had already dwindled for Sunday’s shows, driving the producer and the director to despair.

In his efforts to score a super-hit, Rao had signed up three star actors ? Sameera Reddy, Arti Agarwal and Amisha Patel ? paying each of them between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 75 lakh. The fee charged by lead actor NTR Junior, grandson of the late chief minister and superstar N.T. Rama Rao, was Rs 3 crore.

“Another Rs 3 crore was spent on publicity, tours and gifts to the entire cast and crew,” said film journalist Ashapriya. There were 25 days of shooting at three foreign locations.

“This should be a lesson for all Telugu film producers,” said K.S. Rama Rao, producer and financier. “Almost 90 per cent of Telugu films are facing a similar fate. While costs have shot up, the demand and market valuation have gone down.”