Prakash Raj contests, loses & quits, says sour grapes. What is the fixation? Sree Iyer explains

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Prakash Raj. Loses an election again. This time it was for a post in Tollywood’s Movie Artists’ Association. Within 24 hours of losing the election, he quit the association. Poor guy! He must have thought he can do Kuch Bhi and win elections. I wonder if he even won the Class Monitor election.

He claimed that he is pained to note that ‘regionalism’ is dominating the just-concluded Movie Artists Association (MAA) elections. Prakash Raj avare, even if you had won this election, what does that accomplish? Some Press Conferences and dispute resolution between X actor and Y actress? Why this kolaveri to quit the body? No market in Telugu films?

First off, this body should call itself Actors of Tollywood Association (AATA). No, it is not Wheat flour; rather in Telugu it means game. Two groups (Chiranjeevi’s and Mohan Babu’s) were fighting all posts and poor Prakash Raj got caught in this. Yes, his mother tongue is not Telugu but that should not have been used as an excuse to not vote for him. Of course, one can’t blame the members if they saw his “Kuch Bhi” debate with Dr. Subramanian Swamy and decided.

Stating that his self-respect does not allow him to continue in the MAA, he made it clear however that he would continue to act in Telugu films and maintain his relationship with the industry and fans.

Raj quit as a member of the MAA hours after he was defeated by Manchu Vishnu, son of the veteran actor Mohan Babu, by 107 votes in the bitterly contested election on Sunday. He was reportedly upset because he was dubbed a non-Telugu by the rival group.

Though a native of Karnataka, Raj has worked in films in all four South Indian languages.

“You wanted a Telugu to be elected to the post,” Raj said at the news conference where he announced his resignation, ending his 21-year-old association with the industry body. “The members supported you and they elected a Telugu ‘bidda’ (son). As an artiste, I have self-respect, hence I am resigning from the MAA membership,” he added.

Actor Naga Babu, brother of megastar Chiranjeevi, who had declared his support for Prakash Raj also said he was quitting the MAA.

“Seniors such as Mohan Babu, Kota Srinivas Rao and Ravi Kumar openly said that when you come as a guest you should stay as a guest,” Raj said. “Hence I have decided to continue as only a guest.”

Raj lamented that words such as ‘tukde tukde gang’ and ‘terrorists’ were used in the election campaign. But did he not identify himself with the Urban Naxals? What is wrong if he is called out on that? Raj pointed out that the BJP leader Bandi Sanjay, while congratulating Vishnu and others, commented that “nationalism” had won the elections.

Raj had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections as an Independent candidate from the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 general elections.

Unsolicited advice for Prakash Raj – you are a fine actor and a fine filmmaker. Please stick to that.

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