'Celebs responsible for fans, no compromise on law & order': Revanth Reddy to Telugu film body on Pushpa 2 row

There will be no compromise in ensuring law and order - Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy's firm message to Telugu movie actors, director, and producers Thursday in a big meeting amid strained ties with the film fraternity over the Pushpa 2 stampede row and the arrest of actor Allu Arjun.

Top names in the Telugu film industry, including producer and Allu Arjun's father, Allu Aravind, held a crucial meeting with Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Thursday amid the row over the Pushpa 2 stampede case. Telangana Film Development Corporation (FDC) chairperson and popular producer Dil Raju said the meeting with Revanth Reddy was to foster "healthy relations" between the government and the industry.

In a firm message to Telugu movie actors, director, and producers, Revanth Reddy said, "there will be no compromise in ensuring law and order".

The Chief Minister said crowd-control is as much the responsibility of celebrities as it is that of the police, and that actors, when appearing in public - as Allu Arjun did on December 4 at the city's Sandhya Theatre - had to work with the cops to maintain the peace.

Further, Reddy also banned, for now, benefit shows or special screenings of movies and warned private security personnel, such as those employed by high-profile actors like Arjun.

That warning followed a claim by Hyderabad Police that bouncers working for the actor had behaved "recklessly" during the stampede, and that their aggressive actions had aggravated the incident.

The celebrities who attended the meeting were producers Allu Aravind, Suresh Daggubati, Sunil Narang, Supriya, Naga Vamshi, and Pushpa 2 producers Naveen Yerneni and Ravi Shankar.

The big meeting came amid strained ties between the state government and the film fraternity over the 'Pushpa 2' stampede row - in which a 35-year-old woman named Revathi was killed and her son, 8, injured - and the arrest of actor Allu Arjun.

On Wednesday, Allu Arvind told reporters a sum of Rs 2 crore would be given to the woman's husband as a measure of compensation for his wife's death and for the future of his son.

This comes days after Allu Arjun's dramatic arrest and his subsequent bail in the Sandhya theatre stampede case. In recent days, Revanth Reddy has taken digs at celebrities and the government has also announced that it would not give permission for benefit shows and hike ticket rates.