The Puri Jagannadh-distributors controvery has seen a champion from an unlikely quarter. It is director Teja. As someone who hasn't been making big-ticket films, and who is hardly a much-paid, top-league director, Teja has been politically incorrect without fear or favour. In a recent interview, Teja openly described today's Telugu stars as good-for-nothing fellows. "They are of no use to the industry. Earlier, big stars used to act in many movies in a year. That would keep the industry in good health," he said non-controversially. That his views are simplistic, needs no special mention. The audience have become more and more demanding. One can have four releases a year only at the cost of quality. It's difficult to convince a generation that is exposed to Hollywood cinema with a Dasari Narayana Rao-kinda stuff. Of course, Teja can be forgiven for holding such half-baked opinions because he doesn't watch Telugu movies (he watches movies of only those directors who are 10 times smarter than him!).

That said, Teja defending the hapless distributors is welcome, regardless of the fact that a director or a hero can't be held responsible for what was agreed to between the producer and the distributors, as opined by Tammareddy Bharadwaj, Veera Shankar and others.

"If directors return their money to loss-suffering distributors, they will make movies with more care. I started doing it from the days of Dhairyam," he says.

The question to be asked is, will directors returning their money redeem the Telugu film industry?