Filmdom toasts Sunil, Vinod and Raj triumph at hustings

The Mumbai film industry has been unanimous in congratulating its newly-triumphant representatives in the Lok Sabha. Among the victors this time, are Sunil Dutt, Vinod Khanna and Raj Babbar. In addition, producer D Rama Naidu and hero Ambarish have also been elected from the South.

Industry sources hoped that with five representatives in the Lok Sabha, and two (Shatrughan Sinha and Shabana Azmi) in the Rajya Sabha, its long-standing grievances would be raised in Parliament, and solutions would evolve during the new term. “What’s needed is the will to help the industry. Of course, they have their own constituencies to think of first, but they’d do well to remember that it’s thanks to films that they are what they are, today. Let’s hope they have some sense of obligation to the film industry,” a filmdom veteran opined.

While Sunil Dutt was the only Congress candidate to win among seven from Mumbai (his constituency being Mumbai North West), Vinod Khanna retained his seat at Gurdaspur (Punjab) constituency as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and Raj Babbar won from Agra (Uttar Pradesh) as a Samajwadi Party contestant. Veteran producer and studio-owner, D Rama Naidu, who contested on a Telugu Desam Party ticket from Bapatla, defeated Congress strongman N Jagannath Reddy. And Ambarish won from Mandya (Karnataka) as a Congress candidate.

Among the showbizfolk who contested the elections and lost is Nitish Bharadwaj who contested as a BJP candidate from Rajgad in Madhya Pradesh.

Another film personality to loose the elections was veteran producer T Subbirami Reddy. Anant Nag, who was a minister in the Karnataka government lost in the assembly elections.