‘Dil’ Raju elected president of Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce

Leading Telugu film producer Dil Raju was on Sunday elected as the president of the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC). The panel led by Raju defeated the panel led by C Kalyan in a close contest for various committees. Raju, whose real name is V Venkata Ramana Reddy, got 48 votes while his rival Kalyan secured 31 votes in the election for the post of president. Muthyala Ramadasu was elected as vice-president while KL Damodar Prasad was elected as secretary. T Prasanna Kumar was elected as treasurer.

Raju thanked the voters for electing him as the president and also giving his panel a majority in the Executive Committee, Exhibitors’ Sector, Distributors’ Sector, Studio Sector and Producer Sector. Raju and six members of his panel were elected to the 12-member Producer Executive Committee. The panel also won a majority of seats in the 20-member Producer Sector Council.

Both Kalyan's and Raju’s panels won six seats each in the Distributors’ Committee. In the Studio Executive Committee, Raju’s panel bagged three out of four seats. Raju and Kalyan won eight seats each in 16-member Exhibitors’ Executive Committee. Earlier, as many as 1,339 members out of a total of 1,600 cast their votes in the Film Chamber office at Film Nagar.

Raju on Saturday ruled out any differences with his rival Kalyan. "We have come forward to strengthen the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce. All the producers who are most happening and are in top form today are in my panel," he had said. Stating that the exhibitors have some problems with the governments, he said that to resolve these issues, a strong body is needed.

Raju said that he chose the film chamber over politics despite having "chances to become a Member of Parliament from Telangana".