The Hyderabad drug racket has been in the news ever since it hit headlines early this month. With big names from the film industry being flung around in the case, a lot has been said and done to bring down the entire drug nexus. Rana Daggubati, who juggles Tollywood and Kollywood, believes the drug racket has become more insidious now that it’s affected schools.
“It is a problem. To me, if a 40-plus man is indulging in this, then he knows what he’s doing. He’s informed. That’s not my problem. What my problem is, and even the society’s is, when it enters school and has children involved. That’s the danger. So we need to start triggering what needs to be changed. We have to fight for a clean city, for a clean country,” he said.
To Rana, the industry will always be buzzing with news.
“Few weeks ago, the news said that Tollywood made Baahubali, the greatest film of all time with augmented reality, and such and such. And now the news is about how there’s this drug racket in the industry. This is news, that is news – and it will keep moving on. And we [will] keep making films, overcoming this,” he added.
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The drug racket, exposed on July 2, led to the discovery of about 1,000 students from leading private schools and colleges in the city using high-end drugs such as LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and MDMA (methylenedioxy-methamphetamine). Film personalities were served notices because their contact numbers were found in the call data of Calvin Mascraenhas, the kingpin of the racket. Some of the personalities who were sent notices were actors Ravi Teja, Puri Jagannadh, Navdeep, Charmme Kaur, Mumaith Khan, Tarun, Subbaraju and Nandu, cinematographer Shyam K Naidu and art director Chinna.
Currently, the people who received notices are undergoing intensive grilling sessions with the Special Investigation Team (SIT).