Lights, camera, action: KFCC polls set for photo finish

The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) will witness a triangular contest for the president’s post on Saturday.

The 1,292 members of KFCC are expected to exercise their franchise to elect the president and office bearers.

Vijayakumar,  Gangadhar, and SV Rajendra Singh Babu are the contenders for the president’s post.

Of them, Vijayakumar had unsuccessfully contested for the post during the last election. Vijaykumar, who produced the film Simhadriya Simha with Vishnuvardhan in the lead role, is considered by many as the right choice for the post.

With his political connections and friendship with producers, he may have an easy victory, they say.

He is considered as a hard-core supporter of former chief minister BS Yeddyurapa.

Currently, he is the chairman of the Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation.

“Vijaykumar’s advantage is his friendship with many film producers. He had a good rapport with some of the distributors and exhibitors too,’’ said one of the former presidents of KFCC on the condition of anonymity.

Caste may also play a role in the election.

According to some members, the real fight will be between Gangadhar and Vijayakumar. Vijayakumar belongs to Setty (Vysya) community while Gangadhar belongs to Gowda community.

Actor Jaggesh and other KFCC members from Gowda community are likely to vote for Gangadhar.

“Although Vijayakumar has political connections and he claims to have the support of Tara, Shruthi and Madan Mallu, it may not be a cakewalk for him. He is a known supporter of Vishnuvardhan and it may not go well with a few members who are fans of Dr Rajkumar and Ambareesh,’’ said a distributor-cum-exhibitor requesting anonymity.

Gangadhar’s tragic flaw is his indecisiveness and casual approach to issues facing the Kannada film industry.
Many consider him as the main cause for the misunderstanding that cropped up between Kannada film distributors and non-Kannada film distributors a few months ago.

He claims support of Dr Rajkumar’s family, producers NM Suresh, Soorappa Babu, GK Kutty, Shailendra Babu, Shankara Gowda, N Kumar, Umesh Banakar, Ramamurthy and Navashakthi Nagaraj.

Meantime, unfancied Babu is confident of winning the election.

“My family has produced about 100 Kannada films. It has been associated with Sandalwood for years. My father was known for producing good films in Kannada,’’ he said.

The objective of contesting the election is to help the Kannada film industry that has been facing lot of competition from other language films, he said.

 “There are more than 2,000 theaters in Tamil Nadu as well as in Andhra Pradesh. In Karnataka, there are only  600 theaters, many on the verge of closure. My aim is to have at least 2,000 theaters in Karnataka,’’ said Babu.

KFCC has 659 producers, 360 distributors and 273 exhibitors as members.

The result of the elections is expected to be announced on the same day (September 29.