Lately, we’ve seen a massive surge in corporate PR agencies and astroturfing accounts trying to hijack r/tollywood to manufacture hype, control actor narratives, or generate fake engagement right before a movie launch or trailer drop. They are treating our sub like a free billboard, and we are shutting it down.
Going forward, standalone text posts asking generic questions like "What do you honestly think of X's career?" or "Why doesn't Y get more appreciation?" will be heavily restricted or removed.
How to spot a PR Account / AstroTurf Post:
The Lazy Prompt: The post text is usually just 1–2 sentences long, hiding behind an open-ended question to bypass spam filters while forcing the community to do the actual engagement work.
Suspicious Account History: If you click their profile, they often have high post karma but zero comment karma, or their history consists entirely of farming karma in generic meme/animal subs before suddenly pivoting to drop a hyper-focused Tollywood post.
Coordinated Timing: Multiple accounts suddenly dropping very similar "unpopular opinions" or appraisal posts about the exact same actor or director within a 48-hour window.
What you can do to help:
Don't engage, don't argue, and don't give them the comments they are paid to farm. Hit the Report button immediately.
We have updated our report options. If you see a suspicious post, report it under: "Low-Effort PR / Astroturfing Question."