Telugu filmmakers plan to rein in websites

Although the news of Telugu filmmakers banning three Telugu news channels is making rounds, but the leading producers are thinking of curtailing websites who are damaging the reputation of the film industry with 'false or fake news' and indulging in character assassination of top celebrities.

"Many of the producers believe that some rogue websites are trying to malign the image of Telugu film industry with fake news items and targeting top celebrities in the garb of gossips which has to be curtailed," says a leading producer, who claims that select websites are indulging in 'caste-based' biased reports of the superstars.

"Some websites raise the collection figures of the film of a star belonging to a particular caste very high, while running down even a blockbuster of heroes belonging to some other caste, which is nothing but a narrow-minded approach and not journalism at all," he adds.

Another producer, who is in the panel adds, "A website writes a negative story and mails the link to the actor concerned which is nothing but blackmailing. It never happened before. Surely, rogue websites are crossing all limits of decency. We have been tolerating their false articles and biased box office figures for years and so, the time has come to put an end to false and misleading online reporting," he adds.

Taking a leaf out of the Hollywood filmmakers book, T-town producers are planning to introduce a new guideline to streamline the content to websites-choose between advertisement and content or reviews "Website reviews are damaging the opening collections in overseas market as well as collections in the two Telugu states. Hence, the owners of 80-odd websites must take a decision.

Either they have to take the film’s content, star interviews and also advertisement leaving out the reviews. If a website wants to take a film review, they will not be given any content by the producer, so the ball is the websites owners’ court. There are some film critics who don't even know the basics in reviewing a movie.

They can't even detect the basic plot of a film and just write some trash in the name of tweet reviews and give an amateurish rating to dent the openings. A majority of producers are finding the above-mentioned guideline logical and timely," concludes a studio owner and producer.