Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 22: A massive protest outside the house of Telugu actor Allu Arjun on Sunday over the stampede earlier this month that claimed a life followed the Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy blaming the actor of attending the premier of his film ‘Pushpa 2’ even though he was not granted police permission.
A group of people, claiming to students of the Osmania University, barged into his house, threw tomatoes and broke flower pots. The stampede at Hyderabad’s Sandhya Theatre during the premiere of Pushpa 2, which took place on December 4, has claimed the life of a woman while her eight-year-old son is still in coma in a Hyderabad hospital.
The attack on his house followed Mr Reddy’s statement in the Telangana Assembly on Saturday where he claimed that Allu Arjun had attended the premiere of his movie ‘Pushpa 2’ despite refusal of police permission. He had even waved from his car’s sun-roof on his way in and out, holding a roadshow of sorts and triggering a stampede-like situation.
He said even after the death of the woman, the actor did not leave the cinema hall, prompting the police to force him out. A video that surfaced earlier in the day showed the police escorting out the actor from the movie hall, apparently supporting Mr Reddy’s remarks that the police had to eject him from the theatre.
“We have nothing personally against Allu Arjun or any other individual. The promotion of a film is not as important as the safety of people. They are heroes in films, but on the ground, they should also understand the problems of society,” said Telangana Police chief Jitender.
Allu Arjun has contradicted the chief minister’s claims. “Permission was sought from the theatre management. The police cleared the way so I went in. I am a law-abiding citizen. I would have left if I were told that there is no permission,” he has said. “It was not a roadshow or procession. I just waved to people and went inside theatre. No policeman approached me to leave. My own manager told me that there is an uncontrollable crowd and asked me to leave,” said the actor.
Allu Arjun on Sunday also released a statement urging his fans to express their feeling responsibly. In his latest post, Allu Arjun asked his fans to act responsibly and to not resort to any kind of abusive behaviour online or offline. Allu Arjun’s statement on Instagram read, “I appeal to all my fans to express their feelings responsibly, as always and not resort to any kind of abusive language or behaviour both online and offline. Misrepresenting as my fans with fake IDs and fake profiles, if someone indulges in abusive posts, strong action will be taken against them. I request the fans to not engage with such posts. Allu Arjun.”
Besides Mr Reddy, MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi made claims about the actor over the Pushpa 2 premiere stampede case in the Telangana assembly. Mr Owaisi alleged that the actor said the movie would be “a hit” after the stampede and the death of a fan.
Responding to these allegations, Allu Arjun said at a press conference that he had no idea about the stampede incident and only came to know about it in the next morning when a case was filed against him, due to which he could not visit the family. He also expressed condolences to the victim’s family over the “unfortunate incident.”
The movie star dismissed the allegations levelled by the chief minister and Mr Owaisi as “misinformation” and claimed that the allegations amounted to a “character assassination” against him.
Following the stampede incident, the police registered a case against Allu Arjun, his security team, and the theatre management under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at Chikkadpally police station, based on a complaint from the deceased woman’s family. Allu Arjun was arrested on December 13, in connection with the woman’s death. Later that day, he was granted a four-week interim bail by the Telangana high court. He was released from prison on December 14.