The disturbing AI deepfake incident that has rightly angered our industry should not be looked at as an isolated incident. It is a warning. Ram Pothineni made an important point: “They’re faceless, so they’re fearless.” His suggestion of Aadhaar-linked accountability for online identities deserves serious discussion. Freedom of expression must always be protected. But anonymity cannot become a weapon to abuse, defame, sexually violate or deliberately destroy someone. And this problem does not begin or end with deepfakes. For quite some time, I have been concerned about organised and targeted negativity against films, actors and filmmakers within our own industry. A film should succeed or fail because audiences watch it and decide. Criticism, reviews, trolling and disagreement are part of cinema today. But a coordinated campaign to damage a film before audiences have even seen it is not criticism. It is sabotage. Sundeep Kishan recently spoke publicly about targeted, paid negativity against him and his film even before its release. The Paradise had to approach a court before release seeking protection against defamatory and damaging content. These are not issues we should casually dismiss. Behind every film are years of work, hundreds of families and producers risking enormous amounts of money. Watch the film. Love it. Hate it. Criticise it brutally if you genuinely feel that way. But first, LET THE FILM RELEASE. What is even more unfortunate is that some of this comes from within our own ecosystem: fan groups fighting fan groups, anonymous pages pretending to be neutral, and accounts using photographs of actors as their DPs while behaving in ways those actors may never endorse. What exactly are we achieving? If one Telugu film loses, Telugu cinema does not win. The cake is big enough for everyone to have a piece. As President of the Movie Artistes Association, I want to make it clear that MAA is compiling information on accounts and networks repeatedly involved in targeted abuse and malicious campaigns, including accounts misusing actors’ photographs and identities to mislead people. This is NOT about stopping criticism. It is about accountability. The present deepfake incident makes the larger conversation urgent. And unfortunately, this will not be the last deepfake. Technology is moving too quickly for us to believe deleting one video or filing one complaint solves the problem. I request the Telugu Film Chamber, Producers Council, MAA and all stakeholders to sit together and create a permanent industry-wide mechanism to address AI deepfakes, impersonation, coordinated malicious campaigns and deliberate online sabotage. Not another meeting that ends with a photograph. Not another phone call. A SYSTEM. We may compete every Friday. But we cannot spend the rest of the week trying to destroy one another. Let audiences decide the fate of our films. Let cinema win 🙏