Apart from SEZs and Telangana, Chiranjeevi is a hot topic not merely because of his closely guarded political intentions but because the film Parugu is based on the mega-star and glorifies the actor as a father and brings out the conflict between two generations. In the light of his daughter Sreeja eloping with an engineering student, the film claims to be about “every father who has a daughter”. The film’s theme has raised everyone’s curiosity, not to mention the mega-star’s of fans fearing whose wrath Sreeja and her husband Shirish Bhardwaj fled to Delhi and sought protection. Parugu, meaning ‘run’, stars Chiranjeevi’s nephew Allu Arjun in the lead role.

When revolutionary filmmaker R Narayana Murthy began shooting his film Èrra Samudram (Red Sea), he knew there would be a number of hurdles. But he was not prepared for the demands put up by CBFC. Èrra Samudram is about how the SEZ boom in the state has taken away lands of poor farmers and increased the rich-poor divide. It critises the state’s and the Centre’s policy on SEZs.

Murthy wanted to showcase the plight of tribals in a village in Vizag district where Jindals are setting up an aluminum ore plant and wanted to use real names. But the CBFC asked him not to use names that sounded like ‘Jindal’.

The film opened in theatres across Andhra, including 14 in Hyderabad on Thursday, to raving reviews.

Actor-director Murthy’s films have often exposes exploitation of the poor by landlords and governments. Most of his films under his home banner, Sneha Chitra, are branded as ‘red’ because they highlight the plight of the poor.

With the Congress Government facing flak from the Opposition, NGOs and social organisations fighting on behalf of those affected by the SEZs, the film, which questions the logic of SEZs giving benefit to a few at the cost of thousands of displaced people, is expected to add fuel to a raging fire. The TDP has accused the YSR Reddy Government of giving prime land to real estate developers and builders under SEZs.

A veteran of 26 films, Murthy’s last major film was Vegu Chukkalu in 2004 which he directed and also played the role of a labour union leader. At a time when farmers were feeling the pinch of SEZs, the film, about a sugar factory that was being sold off to an MNC, turned out to be a big hit.

Another film that opened on Thursday is based on Bathukamma, a popular spring festival celebrated in Telangana. The film, starring Tollywood starlet Sindhu Tolani, glorifies the region and its people. The Telangana Rashtriya Samiti had first brought the festival out of Telangana by organising festivities in Hyderabad on a massive scale to highlight it politically.