The theatre strike issue in Tollywood has taken several turns and the decision has been kept on hold after Pawan Kalyan’s statement was out. There are a lot of speculations on this and Mega Producer Allu Aravind was dragged into the controversy. He arranged a press meet to reveal the facts and inform about his involvement. Here is his statement:

I have seen a discussion about ‘Aa Naluguru’ from the past couple of years. I am not in them. I am not in that business and I came out post-Covid. I have no theatres under lease in Telangana except AAA Cinemas. I also left most of the theatres in AP. There are a total of 1500 theatres in the Telugu states and I have less than 15 under lease. We are not renewing these theatres too.It may be an old habit and added me in ‘Aa Naluguru’. I request the media not to add me in them and I am not in the business.

I am a Producer by Profession from the past 50 years. I support the AP Cinematography Minister’s response about the Theatre strike. I have never attended any of the recent meetings that were conducted on theatre strikes as I was not interested and involved. Three meetings were held and I did not attend any meetings. None of my associates also attended the meeting.

I agree that the standalone theatres are in struggling mode. They have to approach the Film Chamber and Guild to resolve the issues through regular meetings. If all the discussions fail, then they can take such a step of closing the theatres. Pawan Kalyan’s Hari Hara Veera Mallu is due for release and closing theatres before the release is a bad step. Pawan Kalyan has been helping everyone from the industry. We have met Pawan Kalyan for Ashini Dutt’s film before its release. He asked us about meeting Chandrababu Naidu on behalf of the Film Chamber. Later, no one took the initiative to meet them officially. Why did several top celebrities meet the previous government? Any business can be done on a smoother note only with the support of the government. Any private business needs the support of the government. The statement that came from Pawan Kalyan’s office is clear and correct.

I agree that there are problems for theatres. Some of them are struggling to survive. All of them should come and discuss the possible solutions. But instead they have announced closure which is not the right decision.