A hapless crowd of Animal lovers in Hyderabad froze in their festive mode when a politician Malla Reddy who , perhaps getting carried away by the dazzling parade of of the glitterati, proclaimed, “Ranbirji, I want to tell you one thing. In the next five years, Telugu people will rule the entire India, Bollywood, Hollywood, everything. After one year, you will also end up shifting to Hyderabad. Now, Bombay has become old, Bangalore has traffic jam, so now there is only one city in India and it is Hyderabad.”
Present in this horrific moment of national embarrassment were S S Rajamouli, Mahesh Babu and many other luminaries of the Andhra and Hindi film industry.
A close friend of Ranbir in Mumbai tells me, “It took all of his acting prowess to keep a straight face while the politician ranted. Ranbir likes to stay as far away from politics, especially scrambled politics.”
Apparently Ranbir has decided to avoid any more promotional public appearances for now.
A source close to Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu was less charitable.
“Why invite politicians to a film event? Mahesh Babu went since there was this talk going around that he had rejected Sandeep Vanga’s Animal when it was offered to him. He wanted to show his solidarity with the director and Ranbir Kapoor. The incident is a huge oops moment for the entire Telugu film fraternity,” says a source close to Mahesh Babu.
While rolling its eyes at the sheer pomposity of the politician’s statement the film fraternity sincerely advises that politics be kept away from entertainment.
