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| Vijayashanti: ‘Bias’ backlash |
Hyderabad, Aug. 23: Vijayashanti’s campaign for Telengana is leaving her fans in other parts of the state cold.
Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalseema saw people burning effigies of the actress and posters of her film Nayudamma, which released last fortnight.
“Why is Vijayashanti campaigning only for the development of Telengana and not other regions?” a protester asked.
The actress who has ruled the Telugu screen for over two decades, earning the sobriquet Lady Amitabh for her action-packed roles, feels a politically motivated campaign against her is at work.
“It is unfair to stall my latest film Nayudamma, which has nothing about Telengana,” she said.
Vijayashanti’s earlier release, Osai Ramulamma, however, was clearly pro-Telengana.
In a recent television interview, the actress had said she was campaigning for the region as nobody else bothered about the plight of the people there.
“I have registered a party with the name Talli Telengana, but it is yet to be fully operational. I am waiting for the right time and support,” she said.
Vijayashanti said leaders of the Telengana Rashtra Samiti had no alternative but to quit their positions in the UPA government. “It is high time the TRS leaders understood the deceptive psyche of the Congress party and its leadership. If they do not wake up even now and take the issue to the streets, Telengana will be a dead issue,” she said.
TRS leaders K. Chandrasekhar Rao and A. Narendra walked out of the Manmohan Singh government yesterday after failing to get any assurance on statehood for Telengana.
“I want to create a platform for all pro-Telengana elements to rally around for the development of the region,” the actress said, adding that she was trying to bring film artistes from Telengana together. “I am confident that none of my co-stars will hesitate to throw in their mite for the development of the region.”
The protests against Vijayashanti’s films have earned the wrath of the TRS leadership. “If they oppose films by Telengana artistes, we will also burn effigies and posters of films acted in and produced by the people of coastal Andhra,” Narendra said.