'Pushpa 2' premiere chaos: Fan frenzy, few cops fuelled stampede in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: A massive turnout of fans and allegedly poor crowd management by police ultimately culminated into a stampede during ‘Pushpa 2: The Rule' premiere at Sandhya Theatre on Wednesday night in which a woman died and her son is battling for life.
Until a couple of hours prior to the arrival of Allu Arjun, police allegedly had no prior information about his visit to the theatre for the premiere.
But by 8pm, following the huge hype around the sequel and expectation of getting a glimpse of Allu Arjun, a crowd had begun gathering at the theatre at RTC X Roads. The road between RTC X Roads and Bus Bhavan soon turned into a sea of people. In contrast, there were only a few policemen present at the spot.
Around 9.30 pm, Allu Arjun arrived in a convoy of vehicles. By this time, the road was already packed with people. Trouble started after Allu Arjun's vehicle reached RTC X Roads. He was waving at the crowd from the sunroof while his convoy, surrounded by fans, moved at a snail's pace.
"The crowd became frenzied and there were not enough policemen at the spot to control them. To allow the movement of Arjun's cars, police resorted to a lathi-charge. I also took the blow. There was no arrangement to control the crowd, which invariably led to police wielding lathis at people like us who had come the theatre after buying a ticket," said Vijay Mallangi, a civil engineer.
"I bought a ticket by paying a premium of 1,100. Is it not the responsibility of the theatre management and police to make arrangements for the safety of the public? In Bengaluru, police refused to permit early morning shows scheduled for Thursday. But in Hyderabad permission was given for multiple shows since Wednesday night and Thursday early morning without taking into consideration crowd management," Vijay said.
When the closed gate was opened to allow the actor's car, all hell broke loose. People with tickets and without tickets rushed into the theatre. As the actor was entering the auditorium, the deceased women, M Revathi, and her injured son Sritej were trapped in the crowd surge.
A senior police officer who conducted a review told TOI that there should have been better planning between local police and theatre management, which could have helped avoid the lathi-charge and stampede. As the policemen did not anticipate such a huge turnout, they were ill-prepared, he said.