The 'rebelsa in Tollywood are going to make their presence felt more forcefully in running the affairs of the Telugu film industry. A new body called 'Tollywood Pragathi Dalama has just been formed to take up the problems that the industry is facing, both from the government and within.

The 'dalama will also be registered with a proper office-bearers team and not just a group of industrywallahs wanting to make their presence felt.

asWe are on the job of going through the registration process. The 'dalama will work towards pulling the film industry out of the crisis that it is in today because of various factors. Apart from applying pressure on the government to look into the problems of the film industry, it will be keen on getting the industry out of a mess that could be its own making,a? producer J V Mohan Goud said.

It may be mentioned here that the affairs of the Telugu film industry are run by the A P Film Chamber of Commerce which is a body of exhibitors (theatre owners), producers, distributors and directors. The actors have a different body which functions under the banner called 'Movie Artistes Associationa.

The Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce is another body which though has representatives from various sectors mainly consists of film exhibitors in the Telangana area.

In fact, of late, some separate bodies have also sprung up with the 'Telanganaa tag pertaining to the film industry in the region and also of film artistes. These associations are mainly trying to get the film industry to employ more people from the Telangana districts.

The newly-formed 'Tollywood Pragathi Dalama, however, will not be a breakaway group from the AP Film Chamber of Commerce. In fact, it will work as a pressure group to get the chamber to deal with some of the most pestering problems for the industry. Some producers, have already reportedly thrown in their lot with the dalam.

One of the biggest problems the producers are facing now is that of value added tax (VAT) that has been imposed by the state government on film prints. For the last several months, the industry has been trying to get the attention of the state government to this problem so that VAT, which is considered a burden, is removed, but has not met with success.

Up to 35 prints, on every film print, VAT of Rs 10,000 has to be paid, up to 100 prints it is Rs 20,000, up to 150 prints it is Rs 30,000 and more than that it is Rs 40,000. The film industry feels that a VAT of Rs 3,000 is reasonable. A section of the producers in the film industry is also unhappy with the way the affairs of the film chamber are run by some families dominating it. They believe certain issues within the industry are not taken up lest it hurt a section of the family. For example, in the case of artistes remuneration, some producers may not want to precipitate the matter and regulate artistes remuneration only because there could be some actors within the family. The 'dalama intends to apply the needed force to put some things in order in the film industry.