Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday assured the Telugu film industry that the state government will take all the measures needed to protect and support it in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He promised concessions and exemptions to support the film industry and the workers as they suffered losses due to stoppage of film shootings and closure of the theatres due to the pandemic.

The Chief Minister said what the government intends to do to help the industry will be included in the manifesto of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

He gave the assurance when a delegation of film personalities called on him at his official residence 'Pragathi Bhavan' here on Sunday. They explained to the CM the losses incurred by the industry due to the pandemic and urged him to extend support.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, positively responded to their request.

"The state government has taken several measures to attract industries into the state. In such a case will the government keep quiet when an existing industry is in trouble? Hyderabad is the centre of a very large film industry like in Chennai. Lakhs of people get employment in the industry and they are dependent on it. Covid has caused damage to the film industry as it did to other sectors. The responsibility to save and protect the film industry is everyone's responsibility," he said.

"Both the government and film personalities should make joint attempts at this. On behalf of the government, we will take all the necessary measures, We will include in the TRS GHMC poll manifesto about the measures we will take for the benefit of the film industry," the CM assured.

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Telugu Film Chamber President Narayan Das Narang, secretary K.L. Damodar Prasad, Producers' Council President C. Kalyan, distributor Sudhakar Reddy, producer Niranjan Reddy and others participated in the meeting.

It was decided that shortly a meeting would be held at actor Chiranjeevi's house to discuss the matter threadbare.