Hyderabad, Sep 23 (IANS) The Telugu, Tamil and Hindi film industries have decided to hit back for restrictions on the release of non-Kannada films in Karnataka.

At a meeting the representatives of three film industries decided to launch a war of non-cooperation on the Kannada film industry.

Last month the Kannada film industry had imposed a ban on the release of non-Kannada films in Karnataka until seven weeks after their release elsewhere. The decision was taken to save the Kannada film industry, which is suffering huge losses as audiences seem to prefer Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films.

But now under an embargo, artistes from the rest of the country will not act in Kannada films, artistes from Kannada films will not be taken in non-Kannada films and raw material like negatives for films will not be supplied.

Non-Kannada films will not be released in Karnataka even after the seven-week restriction and Kannada films will not be dubbed into any other language.

"We have no option left but to launch the non-cooperation movement," said Adiseshagiri Rao, convenor of the joint action committee of the Indian film industry that is looking into the issue.

Rao, who is also the president of Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce, said the joint action committee had met the Karnataka chief minister, the prime minister and information and broadcasting minister over the issue but to no avail.

Representatives of the Telugu and Tamil film industries, South India Film Chamber of Commerce, and well known Hindi film producers Yash Chopra, Pehlaj Nihalani and Manmohan Shetty met here Wednesday to take the decision.

Movie mogul Yash Chopra, whose home production "Dhoom" suffered due to the Karnataka ban, termed the action of the Kannada film industry as "dictatorial" and "unfortunate".

"This is unfair. This is against the spirit of India. We are losing hundreds of thousands of rupees everyday.

"How can we delay the release of a film by seven weeks in these days of piracy? How can a few people dictate what people should see in theatres?" said Chopra.

Nihalani said just because Kannada star Rajkumar's film "Sabdhavedi" did not do well, he was inciting the industry to vent its frustration on films of other languages.

D. Suresh Babu, president of Telugu Film Producers' Council, said: "By launching this non-cooperation movement we want to force them to come to negotiating table."

The Kannada film industry resorted to the ban as there were few takers for its films. Though Kannada films have no entertainment tax, people in Karnataka seem to prefer to watch non-Kannada films.

The resentment against non-Kannada films reached its peak when the release of Telugu film "Gharshana" starring Venkatesh coincided with that of Kannada film starring Rajkumar's son Raghvendra Rajkumar.

Earlier the Telugu film "Samba" starring NTR Junior was released in so many theatres in Bangalore that the Raghvendra Rajkumar's film "Abhi" could not find a single theatre.

Suresh said once the Kannada film industry lifts the ban, the joint action committee would discuss other issues like the number of prints of non-Kannada films. "We are ready for talks to sort out the problem," he said.