HYDERABAD: Justice Challa Kodandaram of Hyderabad High Court lambasted the Telugu movie industry for portraying women improperly in movies and said he had stopped watching films with women members of his family for the same reason. He expressed hope that those who had made enough money in the industry will at least now stop showing sleazy visuals in the movies which fuels demand among men that promotes sex trafficking. He was speaking at an event, ‘Stop Demand - End Sex Trafficking’, organised by the US Consulate General and the anti-trafficking NGO, Prajwala, on Monday.
The event was attended by Tollywood celebrities including producer Allu Aravind, senior officials from Ramoji Film Studios, actors Manchu Vishnu and Amala Akkineni. Aravind, in fact, was standing beside Kodandaram when he was accusing the film industry of promoting sleaze.
Presenting figures from International Labour Organisation, that sexual trafficking trade stood at around 99 trillion US Dollars, he stressed on how films reach out to a large audience as they are the cheapest mode of entertainment which completely grabs their attention. Thus, he said, it became imperative that film makers act responsibly by not creating demand among men that fuels sexual trafficking.
However, Aravind defended the film industry by saying that it actually helped in keeping the demand of sex trafficking under control. Citing example of Karnataka superstar Rajkumar’s kidnapping, he said that there were no films playing in theaters then, but there was an increase in prostitution. Amala Akkineni said Annapurna Studios, established by her father-in-law Akkineni Nageswara Rao, has always produced family-oriented films.