Hyderabad, May 24 (IANS): Amid the gradual relaxation of lockdown regulations in all sectors, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy has indicated that the film industry will also be allowed to begin operations.

In a video conference with Telugu film industry bigwigs on Saturday, Kishan Reddy said that the Centre will soon clear the decks to allow film shootings in the country.

Tollywood personalities who participated in the interaction with Kishan Reddy included producer D. Suresh Babu and director Teja.

With film shootings and screenings suspended for months due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the film industry has been concerned about survival in the immediate and long-terms. Projects to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore are on hold while as many as 1,800 movie theatres remain shut.

Kishan Reddy assured the participants that the government will work on the roadmap for nationwide clearance for theatres to screen movies. He was responding to concerns from the film fraternity that staggered reopening of theatres across the country would affect box office collections.

Kishan Reddy assured the film fraternity of his support for obtaining clearances to shoot in any part of the country, including Jammu and Kashmir. He said that he is keen on having separate discussions with the southern and Hindi film industries to understand the issues of the film sector.

The Telugu film industry is among the larger constituents of the Indian industry and second only to Bollywood. Tollywood produces a little under 300 feature films per annum.

Earlier on Friday, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had announced that film shootings and post-production works would be allowed to resume in a phased manner.