The Movie Artistes' Association, the glam wing of film industry's 24-crafts, mooted various populist welfare schemes for its members. They ranged from housing to financial assistance for the family members of the deceased artistes and educational facilities to their children. The new body of the MAA today arranged a media briefing to announce its decisions taken at its executive committee meeting. On this occasion, senior and aging artiste Mukku Raju was rendered a financial assistance of about Rs. 1.75 lakhs, on behalf of the association and at individual level. Former Union minister Dr. Dasari Narayana Rao contributed Rs. 50,000/- to the donation, while extending a monthly pension of Rs. 5,000/- to Mukku Raju. D. Ramanaidu, AVS, Jayasudha, Sivaji Raja, Ahuti Prasad, Bhargava (Kittu director and producer), Satish (Hope director), KNT Sastry (Kamli director) and others were present.

Housing, enrolment and aid: Murali Mohan
MAA President Murali Mohan said: "After facing several hardships, the Telugu film industry saw its consolidation in Hyderabad, migrating from Chennai. The executive committee took some decisions to make the functioning of the association more effective. There are a number of artistes coming from other languages and acting in Telugu films. Most of them are not members with the MAA. So, we are going to make it compulsory for all such artistes to enroll themselves with us. A special committee will visit all the shooting spots and would force such artistes to pay the stipulated fee and fill in the applications for membership then and there itself. It will be done with the cooperation of the produces and the senior artistes. We will try our level best to realize the dream of housing for all the poor and downtrodden artistes. Those who have houses and plots are not eligible for this semi-charity scheme. A special decision is taken to extend a financial assistance of Rs. 1 lakh to the family members of the deceased artiste, besides conducting the cremation in a grand manner."

Big heroes should come forward: Dasari
Dasari Narayana Rao said: "I appeal to all the big heroes and artistes to come forward with liberal donations to form Rs. 10 crore corpus fund, for the welfare of the poor artistes. I request all of them to render help to such artistes while they are alive, and before they are dead. Moreover, it came to our notice that some artistes are behaving arrogantly on the sets without cooperating with the artistes. Serious action would be taken against them." He further complemented the unit of the three films – Kamli, Hope and Kittu – for making their presence at the national level by bagging National awards.