On Sunday, addressing his colleagues in the Telugu film industry, producer Dil Raju 'urged' Telugu heroes to be present during state award ceremonies in future without fail if their movies win an award. His words were directed towards the likes of Prabhas, Mahesh Babu, Jr NTR and all other big heroes who were not present at the recent Gaddar Awards event. Although it was a "request" by Dil Raju, its nature was something else. It was the Revanth Reddy government's style of communicating to Tollywood to respect authority.
Since Dil Raju made the utterance in his capacity as the Chairman of TFDC just a day after the awards ceremony, it is safe to assume that he was instructed by CM Revanth Reddy himself to say so. The maiden edition of the Gaddar Awards event had the presence of not just the CM but also the Deputy CM of Telangana. Since Allu Arjun and Balakrishna were the only major stars who were present, the CM seems to have got offended.
Conventionally, it is enough for celebrities to accept a state award. They don't have to be present in person on the awards day. The news about Prabhas and other stalwarts deciding to stay away from the event must have been communicated to organizers well in advance. Dil Raju should have conveyed the same to the CM's Office. Ideally, Revanth Reddy should have passed on the baton to the Cinematography Minister and skipped the event altogether instead of producing a post-event diktat.
