On Wednesday night, even as Hyderabad was being treated to the best of comedy by TV funnyman Kapil Sharma, trouble was brewing in the stands.
Heated exchanges were first spotted at the “three-star” section of the gathering.
Trouble was that those who had turned up late were asked to leave, as “all the chairs were full”. After much commotion, the organisers finally relented and allowed the public in... but leaving dozens standing during the entire 90-minute performance. One of the organisers, Sam, found himself at the centre of the storm.
An organiser said, “We were looted. We had everything sorted for the evening, but this guy (Sam) was the reason for all the chaos. He took 400 passes from us and gave them away for free. He did not even invite the sponsors on stage. This is not how you manage an event.”
The complaints got a little personal too.
“The families of the organisers had to sit backstage and on the floor. We did not even have chairs for ourselves. We also negotiated to get Kapil for Rs 15 lakh to Rs 16 lakh but at the end of the day, Sam ‘coordinated’ and took Rs 22 lakh from us,” alleged another organiser, who did not want to be named.
Meanwhile Sam (last name showmaker) rubbished the claims. “We expected a crowd of 3,000, but the turn-out was double that. So it took us some time to arrange seats. People got furious for no reason. Also, if I hadn’t handled the event, there would be total chaos. Whatever they are saying against me is totally rubbish. I am known in the market and I have brought many Bollywood celebrities to town and know how to handle things. You can say it is because of me that they got so many sponsors.”
Lalit Sarda from Infinia Events clarified and blamed the fiasco on overprinting of tickets.
“We were arranging for the seats for extra people since the turnout was huge. People could not wait and started shouting at us. But at the end of the day, everybody was let in.”
The show started late with Kapil Sharma singing the famous Kailash Kher song, "Teri Deewani". Though Kapil has visited Hyderabad many times, this was his first visit after he became “famous”.Kapil Sharma,
