Hyderabad: The Telugu movie industry, popularly called Tollywood, organised a 'Maha Mrutyunjaya Homam' ritual here "to ward off any evil" after about 20 movie personalities died during the last three months, sources said. The three-day 'Homam' commenced today at the temple complex at Film Nagar here. Vedic pundits and spiritual guru Sri Swaroopanandendra Saraswati Swami of Visakhapatnam are part of the exercise.

Top movie personality and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP M Murali Mohan had said that he consulted some pundits on the death of a number of movie personalities in recent months, who had suggested performing the ritual.