On September 16, the Santosh Nagar police in Hyderabad carried out searches in 10 eateries and frisked all the customers for ganja and weapons.

Over the last few years, Telugu film producers have been specifically asking filmmakers to come up with scripts that would work well in north Indian states, where the BJP's Hindu nationalist politics resonates deeply with the public.

The district of Nizamabad has not enumerated the number of manual scavenging workers, has not rehabilitated even a single manual scavenging worker, and has done little to prosecute those forcing people into manual scavenging.

The government decision came after the Arya Vysya community objected to Chintamani Natakam.

Calling it an orchestrated attack to curb dissent, V.V. Rao's family and others blamed both TRS and BJP.