One stabbing and one instance of assault were reported on the first day of the eagerly awaited Pawan Kalyan starrer Sardar Gabbar Singh.

In Karnataka’s Tumakauru district, a youth named Rajesh Naik was stabbed to death during the screening of the film on Friday.

Naik had gone to watch the afternoon show of the Tollywood movie at Alankar theatre in Pavagada town. Police have arrested a man named Ravi, a tea stall owner, for killing Rakesh with a screwdriver.

According to Pavagada inspector Anand, a couple of people from the audience went near the screen to dance for one of the songs from the movie.

“Over 20 people had gathered on the 25 feet by 7 feet space in front of the screen and Rakesh and Ravi were among them. There was fight over space to dance between two groups of people and the altercation escalated to assault,” said Anand adding that the district has many Telugu speakers. 

Police is yet to probe into whether Ravi was under the influence of alcohol when this happened. The accused has been sent to judicial custody for 10 days.

In another incident in Bhadrachalam town of Telangana, the fans attacked a person for commenting that the movie Sardar Gabbar Singh was not good.

Opening day collections of the film were around Rs 21 crore.