# Kona Venkat calls wasteful directors ‘criminals of the industry’

2026-10-10T22:36:15+00:00 | Entertainment | Indian Opinion Desk

Corroboration: 2 independent outlets

Renowned writer Kona Venkat has criticised directors who shoot excessive footage and later discard large portions during editing, calling them ‘criminals of the industry’ in a recent interview. He questioned the crores of rupees spent on scenes that never make it to the final film, noting that producers secure money from financiers at the cost of their families. According to m9.news, Kona Venkat said shooting without proper planning and leaving the editor to remove large chunks later is a different matter from editing scenes that do not work. 123telugu.com reports he added that hits and flops are not under a director’s control, but planning surely is, and such directors should be banned.

## Indian Opinion Analysis

Both outlets report the same quotes from Kona Venkat, but they frame them differently. m9.news leads with a sensational headline, ‘Crores Down the Drain!’ and presents the criticism as a general commentary on wasteful spending, without calling for specific action. 123telugu.com foregrounds the stronger language, including the demand that such directors ‘should be banned,’ and ties the remarks to Tollywood’s missed release deadlines and rising budgets. The core complaint is identical, but m9.news stays with the financial-waste angle while 123telugu.com emphasises the call for consequences. The uniform source quote leaves no factual disagreement, the difference is in which part of the quote each outlet chooses to headline.

## Coverage

Coverage: 2 sources, 1 neutral, 1 sensationalist
- m9.news (sensationalist) <https://www.m9.news/movienews/kona-venkat-directors-wasted-footage-film-budgets/>
  Opens with 'Crores Down the Drain!' headline, drama-first framing
- 123telugu.com (neutral report) <https://www.123telugu.com/mnews/criminals-of-the-industry-kona-venkats-shocking-remarks-on-directors-wasting-resources-prp.html>
  Reports quotes straight with context on Tollywood delays

This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry.

Tags: Kona Venkat, Tollywood
Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/kona-venkat-calls-wasteful-directors-criminals-of-the-industry/
License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources.
Cite: https://indianopinion.org/kona-venkat-calls-wasteful-directors-criminals-of-the-industry/#story-in-brief

How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/