A committee nominated by the state government and headed by information commissioner RV Chandravadan watched a special show of the controversial Telugu film “Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu” Saturday and suggested nine cuts.
The committee found nine objectionable scenes that they felt would hurt the sentiments of the people of Telangana, a day after the film caused huge uproar in the region and protesting activists burned the reels of the Pawan Kalyan starrer, besides attacking the office of its director Puri Jagannath.
The panel submitted its report to information minister DK Aruna in the evening, following which she said the movie would be allowed to be screened only after making the suggested cuts. The movie was not allowed to be screened anywhere in the Telangana region on Saturday.
Earlier, DK Aruna had requested the producer and the director of the film to delete the objectionable scenes voluntarily. Later, the government constituted a committee to suggest corrective measure. The committee consisted of Namasthe Telangana editor Allam Narayana, film directors Tammareddy Bharadwaja and N Sankar, singer Vandemataram Srinivas and others.
As per the instructions of the minister, RV Chandravadan, who is also the managing director of AP Film Development Corporation watched the movie and suggested the cuts.
Meanwhile, some ministers in the Kiran Kumar Reddy cabinet did not take too well to the decision to censor the movie. Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao protested the decision in Visakhapatnam, saying that if the people of Telangana had any objections, they should approach the Censor Board. Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal dashed off a letter to the chief minister, requesting him to take proper law and order measures in the wake of the rampage by the agitators.
Former Vijayawada MLA Adusimilli Jayaprakash also objected to D K Aruna constituting a committee and asserted that it was the duty of the Censor Board to cut any objectionable scenes from films and questioned how a committee appointed by her could take such measures.