Siddu ‘falls’ for Sandalwood’s charm at last

For almost two years, Siddaramaiah showed little interest in issues related to film industry. But things have dramatically changed in the last one month


When BS Yeddyurappa was the chief minister, he was the toast of Sandalwood. Hardly a month passed without BSY announcing incentives or sops for the industry or arriving at a screening of a film with his grandchildren. Every demand by the film industry was met, including bringing film audio and video piracy under the ambit of the ‘Goonda Act’. So enamoured was the industry was with him that it even held a grand felicitation for him at the Bangalore Palace Grounds. But since then, for more than four years now, the chief ministers who succeeded him has not shown the same enthusiasm for Sandalwood-related matters.
In his first two years as CM, Siddaramaiah too seemed to follow the footsteps of his immediate predecessors. So much so that he did not even bother to be present for the customary announcement of the winners of the State Film Awards earlier this year. The appointment of the chairperson of the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy (KCA) is pending for over a year. The Kannada film industry had almost given up on him.
But in a surprising turn of events the chief minister, in the last one month, attended a film function almost every week. In a first, he watched the film Gandhiji Kanasu after claiming that he had not watched a feature film in decades. Since it was an art film, it was seen as an aberration. But then he ended up at the Belli Hejje programme of the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy. It was the 50th Belli Hejje programme, featuring Ravichandran. The programme brings a veteran film personality to talk about his/her life.

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Last week was an even bigger show at the Ambedkar Bhavan. The audio launch of the film Dove, saw Siddaramaiah doing the honours along with almost half of his Cabinet. The man who managed it was producer BK Srinivas. Holding the audio CD in his hands, the CM had exclaimed, “A Kannada movie with an English title!” The CM let it be known that he has enough knowledge of the film industry and said it was difficult for Kannada films to compete with films of four-five different languages in Bangalore and that many films were failing.
On Saturday night, the chief minister, along with a couple of ministers, including Umashree arrived for the launch of Ravichandran’s new film directed by Indrajith Lankesh. But the CM was in a hurry and did not bother to comment on the English name of the film; Love You Aalia.
As soon as he pushed the button to unveil the title, he left. Guess where he was heading for? He was heading to the wedding of film actor-politician Madan Patel’s daughter!