With the High Court pulling up the BBMP for not taking action against those pasting posters in public places, Nagaraj, an assistant revenue office in BBMP west division, filed a case under the Karnataka Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act against producer Dwarkish at the Magadi Road police station for pasting the poster of his latest film, Charulatha.
Surprisingly, actor - producer Dwarkish is not even aware of the case filed against him by the BBMP officials as he feels it is not he who directly goes and pastes the posters and it is actually the distributors job who looks into the matter. “I seriously have no idea and I’m totally unaware about this case. They have just taken my name after visualising my popularity in the industry,” explains Dwarakish adding, “Now that I am aware of it, I will sincerely apologise as it is a mistake. I will also look into the matter.”
Having said that, Dwarakish is upset and he feels that there is a different treatment for the cinema industry. “I always stand by BBMP rules and regulations. At this point, I would also like to bring to their kind notice that we see posters of politicians at every nook and cranny of the city. Why is it that nobody is questioning them and protest against the posters and cuts outs done for publicity?” he questions.
Distributor and Producer Prasad stands by BBMP for taking an initiative to make the city look beautiful. “I understand that pasting posters is a traditional practice in our industry but it is only causing harm to the environment. My personal opinion as distributor and producer is that we should not spoil the public beauty for the sake of publicity,” he says.
As producer and distributor, Prasad spends around `10 to `15 lakhs. “We pay around `2 to `3 lakhs just to paste the poster for which there is accountability. It is high time, we start looking at electronic and print media or hire hoardings to do the publicity of any film. As of today, even uneducated people are glued on to television for every news. Secondly, people don’t go for a movie by just seeing the posters,” says Prasad, who feels that this method is followed only because other film makers are doing it. “There is heavy competition and if we don’t stand by it, we look like fools,” he says.