Actor Allu Arjun at the Chikkadpally police station in Hyderabad.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
The stampede at a special screening of the film, Pushpa 2: The Rule, at Hyderabad’s Sandhya Theatre in early December 2024 following actor Allu Arjun’s “surprise entry” and the events that followed it caused a rift between the Telangana government and sections of the Telugu film industry.
On December 4, a family of four — M. Revathi, her husband M. Bhaskar, and their son and daughter — had gone for the screening at the single-screen theatre. When the actor entered the premises, a stampede broke out and Revathi died. Her son is battling for life in hospital. Soon after the incident, a case was filed against Sandhya Theatre, Allu Arjun, and his security team.
At an event to celebrate the film’s success on December 7, Allu Arjun thanked the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments for hiking the prices of tickets and said he was distressed by Revathi’s death. On December 13, the Telangana police arrested the actor. The next day, the Telangana High Court granted him interim bail.
Many believe that the arrest was an act of political vendetta as Allu Arjun appeared to have forgotten Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s name at the event and mentioned it only after the audience shouted it out. It was this momentary lapse that landed him to jail, they allege.
Some Congress leaders believe that this was a deliberate act to undermine the Chief Minister’s importance, especially since the actor had extended a special note of thanks to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu.
Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao added fuel to the fire by saying film stars who have taken concessions from the government cannot even recognise Mr. Reddy as the Chief Minister. A family member of Allu Arjun’s revealed that Mr. Rama Rao’s comments worsened matters and said that he should have refrained from using this episode to settle political scores.
In the Telangana Assembly, Mr. Reddy was forceful, asserting that the law applied equally to all citizens, irrespective of their status. He added that the law would take its course. He also said that the actor behaved irresponsibly when the police tried to arrest him. Mr. Reddy then lambasted the film industry for not responding to the woman’s death, implying that the film industry and the Opposition appeared more sympathetic towards the actor than the woman’s family.
Allu Arjun denied these allegations and said this was an instance of “character assassination”. He added that he had not been informed by the police about Revathi’s death.
With claims and counter claims flying thick and fast, and in order to debunk the actor’s allegations, Hyderabad Police Commissioner C.V. Anand released a video of the police escorting the actor out of the theatre.
The Telangana government then announced that it would no longer allow special shows that provide a windfall to the producers. The decision, which caused concern among industry heads as many big-budget movies are awaiting release, further widened the rift between the State government and the film industry.
In the midst of this saga, Dil Raju, who was appointed Film Development Corporation chairman, said that he would bridge the gap between the industry and the government.
The relationship between the industry and political parties in Telangana is complicated. It goes back to the days of the agitation for Statehood when the BRS (then called the TRS) allegedly threatened the industry saying it would not allow professionals from Andhra Pradesh to operate freely in the new State. Later, the industry grew close to the BRS, especially with Mr. Rama Rao, say senior Ministers. This apparently angered the Congress, which had given land and tax incentives to the film industry soon after it had moved from Madras.
The first signs of a thaw were seen at a meeting between film industry heads and the Chief Minister on December 26. Mr. Reddy said the government stood with the film industry. He also said there would be no compromise on law and order and that celebrities are responsible for controlling fans. Meanwhile, Mr. Dil Raju dismissed the issue of special screenings as trivial and said that Mr. Reddy harbours a dream of making Hyderabad an international destination for film shootings.
While working on fulfilling that dream, the industry and the government must together ensure that no more lives are lost in incidents like these.
Published – January 06, 2025 12:15 am IST
