The culture of putting flexis for some or other occasion came to big towns like Kakinada, Rajahmundry, Eluru, Bheemavaram, Tanuku, Palkol, Amalapuram and Mandapeta. The cost of flex boards has come down from Rs.200 per foot to Rs.10 and the youth started putting up flexis for each and every occasion.
“It was very costly during 2005 as we are importing from Bengaluru. The numbers of flexi printing units have gradually increased and now it came to Rs.8 to Rs.10 per foot according to size and width of the flexi,” said Mr. Veerabhadram of VR3 Flex Printers in Rajahmundry, who brought this culture to the city.
Putting up flexi culture has spread to rural areas year after year and the competition among the printers has brought down the prices drastically. “Initially the youth brought this culture of putting up flex boards for some important occasions like political meetings, elections and release of films of their favourite film heroes,” said Prof. P.V.B. Sanjeeva Rao, Lecturer and head of Youth Affairs in SKVT College. Slowly this ‘culture’ spread to personal functions like birthdays of actors and political leaders, birth and death anniversaries of State and national leaders and legends.
“I have seen many clashes in putting up flex boards in front of many theatres for the last 10 years and several youth sustained serious injuries,” said Challa Sankar Rao, a leading film distributor and Chairman of Aryapuram Cooperative Bank.
Fans of actors also perform ‘puja’ and ‘abhishekams’ with milk to the flex boards.
“We don’t encourage such type of actions and my hero wants distribution of milk to orphans or the poor in government hospitals,” said Srinivas, district president of Hero Chiranjeevi Fans Association.
In Ravulapalem, Amalapuram, Ramachandrapuram and Mandapeta police stations, there are a number of police cases on youth who clashed with each other in the name of fans’ associations. According to L. Ankaiah, DSP, Amalapuram and Ambika Prasad, DSP of District Crime Records Bureau, about 10 youth died in clashes between these associations in the last 8 to 9 years in East Godavari district.
In West Godavari, the situation is same and particularly, Bheemavaram, Palkol, Naraspuram, Tanuku and other towns are most sensitive areas where the youth clash with each other on the release of their favourite heroes’ films. “They first concentrate on flex boards and tore others or burn them. Automatically the trouble starts and then we have to chase them to restore normalcy,” said P. Soumyalatha, East Zone DSP, Rajahmundry, who came here a month ago after working in Narasapuram and Bheemavaram.