During his recent conversation at a filmmakers’ roundtable, movie producer Boney Kapoor spoke about the craze of South Indian cinema among fans and believed that it was the reason behind ‘Pushpa 2’ premiere stampede, while film star Allu Arjun is being unnecessarily blamed for a woman’s death in the fatal incident.
‘Pushpa’ premiere stampede case: Allu Arjun appears before court virtually
“When I first saw, Ajith’s film releasing at 1 in the morning. I was shocked to see 20-25k people outside the theatre. After I came out of the show around 3.30-4 am, there were still that many people outside,” he recalled. “I am told the same thing happens with films of Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, or present-day stars like Jr NTR, Ram Charan, Mahesh Babu.”
Kapoor furthered on to link it with Arjun’s recent controversy and added, “Ticket rates are inflated on the first two days or at least the first day for extra shows. That is why this situation has arisen where unnecessarily Allu Arjun was dragged and blamed for the death of a fan.”
“It was only because of the crowd that had gathered to see the film,” the veteran defended.
Sandhya Theatre Stampede Case
Notably, Allu Arjun’s surprise visit to the screening event of ‘Pushpa’ sequel last month, triggered a massive crowd of fans at the venue, resulting in a stampede-like situation.
During the panic situation, a woman named Revathi and her son Sri Tej lost consciousness, and she was declared dead upon arrival at the Durga Bhai Deshmukh Hospital.
The police and state government blamed Arjun’s star power for causing the fatal stampede, and the actor was taken into custody in connection to the case around the woman’s death. He was sent on a 14-day remand by a local court, however, was soon granted a four-week interim bail by the Telangana High Court and was released from the jail the next day.
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