Tollywood director Puri Jagannadh on Wednesday was probed for nearly ten hours by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Hyderabad regarding the Drug menace. After a long wait the director returned home with his family without speaking to media. Puri posted a video in twitter about the investigation and the problems he has been facing from the past few days. Puri said his family has been completely shattered because of media and that he was feeling sad about the stories and allegations. Is media alone to blame or did Telugu Film Industry (TFI) fail to lobby?
It all started a month ago, when the enforcement officials found that about 1000 students of prominent private schools and colleges in Hyderabad were consuming high-end drugs. Officials sent notices to over 50 schools and colleges. Few names of the schools were exposed but officials denied any such move. Politicians and school managements expressed disgruntlement for exposing the names of some educational institutions. Politicians were reportedly enraged over Enforcement Director for exposing the drug racket without informing the Ministry of education and also for sending notices to the schools.
When the drug menace was exposed a director and a producer were also found. Nobody even tried to guess the names or taint the industry. But the moment 11 people were given notices, media and people started playing “guess who” game. The names were leaked but officials again denied any such move. No one was angry for sending notices to actors and directors. The media intrusion into the lives of these actors has increased. Each person will be probed for hours, the trail is going to last longer and the focus will remain on TFI. Clearly the lives of the Tollywood personalities are less private compared to that of other people.
Soon the officials uncovered the politicians’ kin were found on the list of the accused Calvin. Neither names nor number of people involved has seeped. When Congress leader Digvijay Singh tweeted that certain leader’s friends were high on drugs, KTR took to twitter to stand up against such allegations.
Nobody took stand for TFI or against the stories being promoted in the Media. MAA admitted that Tollywood has links with drug mafia, and it warned the people. Furthermore, it said that it will co-operate with the police. But none of them came in support of these eleven actors who got notices. The families of Puri and Ravi Teja had to come out and speak about themselves.
MAA even said that it is the collective responsibility of the film industry to foil the circle. It is evident that the schools and politicians could lobby with the government but TFI failed to do so even in hiding the names of the people. The focus from the kin of bigwigs shifted to Tollywood which now has become a stooge in the whole drug mafia.
