Battle for the title

As if making a full-length feature film was not tough enough, Tollywood filmmakers seem to love courting controversy over the titles of their films. A while back director Gunasekhar had complained to the Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce that his title Katthi was used for Kalyan Ram’s just released film, Kalyanram Katthi.

He had registered the title in the name of producer Danayya with the Film Chamber of Commerce and had initially refused to give up the title when some producers had requested for the same, contending that the title was best suited for a script that he had prepared.

When the Chamber of Commerce permitted Kalyan Ram to use the title, the director dropped the issue as he didn’t want to make a big deal of it. It may be noted that Mahesh Babu’s Khaleja was also caught in a controversy when some producers had gone to court claiming that they had registered the title first.

The latest film in trouble is Nithyapelli Koduku, with the tag line “Care of Jagadamba Centre.” The film’s director, Alahari, has alleged that the Film Chamber of Commerce disrupted its release by not giving a publicity clearance for the film. “When I first registered the film title, they had approved it. A week later, they sent me a notice that some people from Vizag were opposing the title,’’ the director said. Apparently, the film’s title indirectly refers to the owner of Jagadamba Theatre in Vizag who has reportedly married several women. According to Alahari, though the Chamber of Commerce sent him a letter approving the title months later, it didn’t give the publicity clearance at the last minute. “We wanted to release the film on December 3. Now I can’t go to the censor board without the clearance certificate,” he complained.

However, when contacted, Film Chamber of Commerce secretary K.C. Sekhar Babu said otherwise “We told them that the Jagadamba theatre owners had requested that the title be changed, but we didn’t refuse to give the publicity clearance certificate. If he wanted to release the film earlier, he should have gone to the censor board. The censor board does not insist on a clearance certificate first,” Sekhar Babu observed, adding, “However, while obtaining the censor certificate, they must produce the publicity certificate,’’ he maintained. Asked whether the chamber would give the certificate, he maintained that the executive committee was the decision making body and it would take a decision. However, it is rumoured that the director is unnecessarily creating controversy to gain publicity.

Meanwhile, Alahari has vowed to stage a protest if the film was not given the publicity clearance within a week