New Delhi: Prabhas fans are pro at waiting outside cinema halls to watch their mega star’s films. But on Sunday evening, they had to wait for over three hours at the Vimal 70MM Theatre in Hyderabad due to a technical snag. They had gathered to witness the release of a song from Prabhas’ upcoming film, The Raja Saab. The song, which was planned to be released at 6 pm, was finally out around 9 pm.
Technical glitches are haunting Telugu film events in the last few days. Last week, SS Rajamouli’s event of the Globetrotter too faced such issues.
Prabhas skipped the song release event, and director Maruthi arrived with creative producer SKN. At the event, SKN apologised for the delay and explained the reason behind it. This was also the latest in the series of delays faced by the film since it began shooting in 2022. The Raja Saab is set to release on 9 January next year.
However, the latest delay has angered some fans. “Are you in Hyderabad or coming from America?” wrote one upset fan on X.
There was also a spat on X between the actor’s fan page and the film’s creative producer. When the page complained about the delay, SKN snapped back: “Why don’t you come and handle the last-minute glitches?”
The song, titled ‘Rebel Saab’, is a tribute to Prabhas’ earlier films and is composed by Thaman S. The Telugu version of it is sung by Sanjith Hegde and Blaaze, with lyrics by Ramajogayya Sastry. The Hindi version is written by Kumaar, with Sanjith’s vocals switched out for Sachet Tandon’s. The song was also released in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada.
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The drone leaks
Earlier, the Globetrotter event, held at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad on 15 November, saw a delay of approximately 45 minutes. More than 50,000 fans attended the promotional event, which was attended by the film’s stars Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Prithvitraj Sukumaran.
Rajamouli apologised to the audience.
“Last night we did not test the glimpse on this screen because a drone was flying here trying to leak our one-year-long hard work,” said the director. The film had been plagued by leaks, with one video of the film’s shooting emerging on social media early this year.
In another instance, photos of Priyanka Chopra and Mahesh Babu were leaked from their shoot schedule in Odisha.
“I don’t have much faith in God. Minutes back, my dad spoke saying that Hanuman will be there as strength, support in our deeds. When the glitch happened, I got furious and thought, ‘Is this how he benefacts us?’ (sic),” Rajamouli said in Telugu before the gathering.
Rajamouli’s statements at the event later also sparked backlash for allegedly hurting Hindu sentiments.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)