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Telugu filmdom is now full of tales about how Dasari Narayana Rao, who had fallen on hard times financially, suddenly seemed flush with money after he became MoS for coal and mines in 2004. “Dasari used to stay in Prashasan Nagar in a police officer’s house on rent,” says another filmmaker, refusing to be named. “He could not pay his dues for 10 months. This was in 2002. He was in such debt that every hour he’d receive calls from financiers and lenders asking for amounts ranging from a lakh to a crore.

Dasari owned a school in Chennai opposite Prasad Studios and was to sell it to Vazhapadi Ramamurthy, a politician, in 2001 in order to recover some money. But after Dasari took an advance, Vazhapadi passed away and the sale was called off,” he says. About a month after he became Union minister in 2004, Dasari called financiers to his place and settled dues worth Rs 3.75 crore. “They were all stunned because he was literally subsisting on hand loans at the time. But they were glad to get their money back,” says a film distributor.

Overnight, Dasari seemed to have come into big money and bought distribution rights for big films such as Jai Chiranjeeva (starring Chiranjeevi), Sainikudu (Mahesh Babu), Super (Nagarjuna), Balu ABCDEFG (Pawan Kalyan), Desam Muduru (Allu Arjun). “He spent Rs 6 crore to buy the distribution rights of Jai Chiranjeeva for Nizam and Vizag areas and the movie tanked. But his company was strangely making profits,” says a director. “This way, Dasari bought rights for 40 big films soon after becoming minister. Where were the funds coming from unless it suddenly rained money in his native hometown Palakolu (West Godavari) district,” says the director.-from Outlook