Kannada film fraternity calls bandh against dubbed films

Pro-Kannada organisations and Association of Film Employees have, under the banner Kannada Okkuta, called a state-wide bandh of cinemas Monday to protest the screening of films dubbed from other languages. Vatal Nagaraj, president of Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha, said Sunday the dubbing culture was not only severely affecting industry workers in Karnataka. “It is also diluting our native culture and we strongly oppose it and have called a bandh,” he told the media.

Kannada actors Shrinath, Shivarajkumar, Yash, Bharathi ,Tara, Ravichandran, Jaggesh, Sundar Raj, Ashok, Bhavana and Chandrashekara were present at the press conference and supported the move.

However, with the Competition Commission of India yet to make a final statement on the matter, Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce stayed away from the protest. Its 700-odd members had decided to not take part in the bandh, President RR Odugoudar said.