The Hyderabad police have registered a case against Mythri Movie Makers, the production house backing Tollywood star Allu Arjun’s upcoming film Pushpa: The Rise. The police booked Mythri Movie Makers for flouting COVID-19 norms by allowing over 15,000 people to attend a pre-release event to promote Pushpa, even as permission was granted to accommodate only 5,000 people. The event was held at the Telangana State Special Police Battalion grounds in Yousufguda on Sunday, December 12.
The case was booked by the Jubilee Hills police. Inspector S Rajasekhar Reddy told The Hindu that permission was granted to allow only 5,000 people at the venue. “They have violated the permission and sold over 15,000 passes and mobilised people, which resulted in massive traffic jams and disturbance to normal life in the area.”
“It was not like people came voluntarily, everyone who was in and around the premises was holding passes, which means they sold passes beyond granted permission. The crowd swelled and behaved in an unruly manner causing threat and endangered human life due to rash and negligent acts by the organisers,” he added. The inspector told Telangana Today that the management misled the police about the event, resulting in a "stampede-like" situation.
The production house was booked under sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 341(punishment for wrongful restraint), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 290 (punishment for public nuisance) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Further investigation into the matter is underway, and police have reportedly collected footage from CCTV cameras in the area.
Allu Arjun responded to the incident on social media. He said, "I got to know about the unfortunate incident of my fans fetting injured at a fan meet event today. My team is personally monitoring the situation and keeping me updated. Henceforth, I will take a lot of care to ensure that such incidents don't happen again. Your love and admiration is my biggest asset and I am never going to take them for granted."
Pushpa: The Rise stars Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna and Mollywood actor Fahadh Faasil in the lead. Directed by Sukumar, the movie will be released in five languages including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. The first installment of the two-part film, Pushpa: The Rise is scheduled to hit the big screen on December 17. The movie is said to revolve around the theme of red sander tree smuggling, with Allu Arjun playing the protagonist Pushpa and Fahadh Faasil playing the antagonist.