In Tollywood, the film’s title is the prime bait to lure the audience to theatres. This is perhaps the reason why about 60 titles get registered with the AP Film Chamber of Commerce every month.

Interestingly, at least 10 of them are rejected as they are offensive or are similar to film titles which have been a success.
Recently, the film chamber rejected the director Srinivas Reddy’s title Dil Raju-Puli Raju as Dil Raju is the name of popular producer in the industry and sources say he wanted to settle his personal scores with the latter. Shockingly the caption for this title was veediki undhi-vaadiki ledhu which was considered offensive. “It comes as a surprise to me,” says a puzzled Dil Raju. “I am yet to find out why someone did it.”

But it is nothing new for the film chamber, which is flooded with titles based on the names of prominent actors and producers. They say it is imperative for the producers to get the no objection letter from the family members of the person after whose name the film is being titled.

“All the movie titles in Tollywood should get our approval,” says Vijandar Reddy, secretary of the film chamber. “We receive around 60 applications per month. Filmmakers apply for titles named after NTR, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna et al. They have to get the no objection letters before they can use it.” Some even file applications with names such as Nenu Taraka Ramdini for NTR and ask the chamber to accept the title.

There are also several filmmakers who choose to ape titles of hit movies. In the last six months, the chamber rejected 25 titles as they were similar to the movies which are already registered or have been hits.
“The film Akashamantha starring Trisha and Prakash Raj was a box office hit and immediately there were people who applied for the title Aakashame Hadhu,” says Vijandar Reddy. “We reject such applications since they want to use similar posters and release the film.” However, filmmakers are not amused by the chamber’s rejection of titles. They claim that they are not trying to ape successful films but want to title their movies in accordance with the story.

“I applied for Naa Prema. But it was rejected because there is already a movie titled Prema,” says director Aditya. “They also rejected my movie title Hijack claiming it is anti-national. We should have the freedom to choose our movie titles.”