Where have all the novelists gone, asks Akkineni

Madhumasam celebrated its 100-day function on Thursday. And Akkineni Nageswara Rao, who is known not to leave the mike when he comes across one, took the opportunity to shower praises on Ramanaidu. How he (Ramanaidu) always thinks about only cinema, blah blah blah. He was also hopeful that the Telugu film industry too can come up with good themes. Of course, the film in question, Madhumasam, stars his grandson Sumanth. And, so, he went bonkers about Ramanaidu and the film. And he didn't stop at that. He lamented the lack of good stories in Telugu cinema to the lack of support from the literary field. "There are no good novels coming out in the market today. If there had been, we would have had good stories," he said. And then, as usual, he went down memory lane, to tell the audience about how he had acted in films made out of novels, like Secretary and Premnagar. He has also given credit to a novel, Jeevanatarangalu, which was a milestone in the industry and which gave a new image to Krishnamraju in those days.