Former Rajya Sabha member and veteran producer-director and actor Dasari Narayana Rao, who is known for making controversial remarks against certain film personalities, has done it again.

Known for his staunch support for low-budget films, Dasari fumed at certain high profile producers for keeping the theatres under their control. “I will slash their tongues, if anybody looks down upon the small-budget films and denies them right to exhibit,” he said, at a function on Sunday.

He expressed anguish that despite making very good films, the small-budget film producers were not able to get theatres to release the films.

“A producers’ mafia is ruling the theatres in the state. Even big films like Julayi are not able to get good number of theatres for release; one can imagine the plight of small budget films,” he said.

Dasari threatened to launch an agitation very soon against a handful of producers dominating the theatres and for protecting the interests of the small budget films.