When Pelli Choopulu director Tharun Bhascker spoke to several media houses post the announcement of his National Award, little did he know that his words would become the target for Jr NTR’s fans. How, you might wonder! But that’s exactly what has happened as angry Jr NTR fans put up slurry messages on the actor’s social media pages.
While it is still unclear as to which statement they were miffed by, a particular video in a news channel, titled ‘sensational comments’, seems to be the reason. In the video, Tharun comments on why he lashed out on the IIFA Jury, but says nothing defamatory about the actor. “After I put up the post expressing disappointment (with IIFA), several people from the industry called and explained that the way award ceremonies work is totally different. If Jr NTR comes to the show there’ll be TRPs, I understand,” he says in the video. What the director meant was that the presence of Jr NTR will get the channel airing the show more TRPs.
Well, he had no idea that this would snowball into a huge online furore. Fans of Jr NTR assumed that Tharun thinks the actor is not worthy of the award and that he is “being arrogant just after the success of one film”. Throughout this furore, Tharun has been in New Delhi to receive his National Award.
The director decided to do a damage control and posted an apology on Facebook. “Although I have made all statements regarding him in a humorous light, I should have been more careful. I’m aware it has hurt his fans all over & and I’m extremely apologetic about it. My father, and uncles have worked with Senior NTR garu during his regime and have been followers of his values ever since. I have huge respect for Jr. NTR and, in fact, he was one of the first person to openly give a positive statement about Pelli Choopulu (sic),” he wrote. He added, “I hope to work with Jr.NTR garu once I’ve reached that level. Please forgive me for any hasty actions or comments of mine. (sic).”
The fans instead want Tharun to organise a press meet to tender an apology. Tharun put up yet another post saying, “Guys, I’m going to give an apology in front of the media for sure. But please understand that I haven’t mentioned anything bad about NTR sir and this time, my family is watching and it’s really hard for us to see all these comments. I’m sorry if I have offended anyone. It was never my intention. Kindly let it go. (sic).” While the director is trying his best to pacify things, several industry insiders are calling for this ‘hooliganism’ in the name of fandom, to end.
