KT Rama Rao (KTR), the Telangana minister for panchayatraj, rural development, rural water supply & information technology, has opened up on his growing affinity with Mahesh Babu, Ram Charan and other Telugu stars.

In recent days, KT Rama Rao has been spotted several times with celebrities from the Telugu film industry. He often watches Tollywood biggies' movies and shares his verdict on Twitter. After watching "Srimanthudu", he had asked Mahesh Babu to adopt a village in Telangana. He was also chief guest at the inaugural function of Ram Charan's airline TruJet.

His growing affinity with the Telugu stars has surprised many in the industry, with some trying to speculate the reason behind it. Now KT Rama Rao himself has revealed the reason in an interview to a leading Telugu TV channel. The TRS leader said his party intends to stop the Telugu Film Industry from shifting to Visakhapatnam from Hyderabad following the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

"My aim is to see Tollywood doesn't chalk any plans to go to Vizag. I want to make them very comfortable here. That's the government's motto, not just mine", Gulte quoted the minister as saying during the interview.

"The Telugu industry's turnover might be only Rs 1,000 crore, and revenue-wise it isn't a big contributor to the state, but it's an industry giving employment to 30,000 people and has huge visibility. If at all tomorrow Tollywood biggies decide to shift to Vizag completely as most superstars hail from Coastal Andhra, that will be a huge setback for the Telangana state", said the minister.

The state badly needs a film industry, as movies are among the biggest obsessions of the people. "Not just me, but any person in Telugu states or India would be obsessed with movies. So, the film industry is vital for Telangana," said KTR.

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