With film star Jr NTR and his father-in-law Narne Srinivasa Rao deciding to go it alone with Studio-N and break ties with Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, the channel is no longer considered a TD mouthpiece and one can even see bits of criticism about the party being aired.

The affairs of the news channel so far were being managed by Mr Naidu’s son Lokesh Naidu and his associates.

With Mr Srinivasa Rao, husband of the TD chief’s niece, taking up the reins of the channel, live coverage of Telugu Desam media conferences and Mr Naidu’s speeches are a thing of the past.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the state government is said to have okayed land for Mr Srinivas Rao in whi-ch the latter is planning to set up a studio on the lines of Annapurna Studios.

Sources say that Mr Lok-esh Naidu’s increasing pre-sence in the TD was the reason for the relatives parting ways. Even the ‘Swaraveda’ music concert organised by Mr Naidu on behalf of the NTR Trust on Friday was ignored by Studio-N under the new management.

A few weeks back, Mr Abhishta, CEO of the channel for more than a year and a close associate of Mr Lokesh Naidu, was asked to leave along with his team. He was replaced by Pradyumna who is close to Mr Srinivasa Rao and word was sent out to the channel staff that “no more positive news about Telugu Desam would be aired henceforth”.

It is an open secret that it was Jr NTR who was behi-nd the “takeover” move and that he and his father-in-law are now keen to start a new entertainment channel, Mirchi, under the supervision of his close friend and actor Rajiv Kanakala and his popular anchor wife Suma.

However, though the news channel is being revamped with a new logo etc., its TRP ratings still haven’t risen much. Meanwhile, Mr Naidu is left without a channel to air his and the party’s views exclusively and has, thus, had to be content with routine coverage by other channels.

Sources, however, said that the TD chief has plans of either starting his own channel or taking over an existing news channel.

DC