Varanasi event: SS Rajamouli insults Lord Hanuman, blames almighty for tech glitch; Mahesh Babu trolled for electric-bull entry

Varanasi event: SS Rajamouli insults Lord Hanuman, blames almighty for tech glitch; Mahesh Babu trolled for riding a bullinstagram

It was a star-studded global title launch of ace director SS Rajamouli's upcoming film starring Mahesh Babu and Priyanka Chopra. The trailer for SS Rajamouli's upcoming film Varanasi was dropped on Saturday evening.

By the looks of it, netizens are of the view that the film appears to have a connection to the Ramayana,  Mahesh Babu as Rudra, and Priyanka Chopra as Mandakini. The makers also unveiled a teaser featuring Mahesh Babu as Rudra, riding a bull while wielding a trishul.

However, amid a pool of fans at the launch, a technical glitch at the event upset Rajamouli.

SS Rajamouli faced a tech glitch during his speech and indirectly blamed Lord Hanuman

It so happened that at the title announcement event of the film, which features Mahesh Babu in the lead, the makers attempted to screen the title teaser on a giant screen they had erected for the purpose. Initially, there were technical glitches.

After the unveiling of the first look, SS Rajamouli took the stage and gave a speech that went viral,  but for the wrong reasons. Since Sunday morning, clips of the Baahubali director have been circulating online, with netizens demanding an apology for hurting their sentiments.

SS Rajamouli explained the amount of effort his team took to ensure that the content of their film was not leaked and expressed his pain at how a random drone operated by unscrupulous elements had, despite their best efforts, managed to leak a still from his much-awaited magnum opus Varanasi.

Director SS Rajamouli, while waiting for the technical glitches to be fixed, explained the reason for the issue.

Stating that they had set up a giant screen to give the audience a feel of the scale and scope of the film, Rajamouli said, "We were doing everything. We were supposed to test our video last night. But to make sure that the teaser wouldn't leak, we used huge cranes to cover this place with black cloth and worked late into the night. At about 2 am, we started testing our test videos, without playing our teaser. We don't know where these people came. I don't know if it was one or two of them. They started taking a drone and used it to make a video out of whatever we were supposed to show. They put it out on the Internet. That is one year of hard work of so many people, thousands and thousands of man hours and crores and crores of rupees. All that was leaked by one drone flying randomly. We did not know what to do. We did not even test our video, fearing it could be leaked. We wanted to show it in full scale and full resolution and thought we would take a risk."

However, another clip of Rajamouli has gone viral, in which he is speaking at a Varanasi event, admitting to lacking strong faith in God and recounting irritation at his father K. Vijendra Prasad's assurance that Lord Hanuman would back their efforts, stressing self-reliance over divine aid. The RRR director questioned, blaming "Devudu" (God) for setbacks when a team proves incompetent, urging personal responsibility instead.

Moviegoers and netizens are unhappy with Rajamouli's speech, and they've demanded an apology from the director. Rajamouli is getting brutally trolled for his statement.

A user wrote, "We know you are an atheist @ssrajamouli. But don't dare to comment on our Hanuman and beliefs. Didn't expect this sweeping statement from you, my team is incompetent, aithe devudini enduk blame cheyyadam. Disappointed."

Another wrote, "You don't believe in God. You get angry because of your father and wife believing in Lord Hanuman. But you want the money that comes in the name of God (film)."

One of the netizens commented, "Makes a movie about Gods, Varanasi & stuff, yet starts his speech with naku devudu meda nammakam ledu... what a man."

Mahesh Babu's grand electric-bull entry at Varanasi event

Apart from SS Rajamouli admitting to being an atheist and getting backlash for the same, Mahesh Babu also came under fire for his grand entry at the Varanasi event.

The actor rode on an electric bull, a reference to his character Rudra's introductory poster. His entry wasn't appreciated at all by many, but many netizens slammed the makers for making him do so. Many called it cringe and disrespectful to Hindu culture.

Take a look at the comments.

On the other hand, speaking at the event, Mahesh Babu said, "I'll make everyone proud! Most importantly, I'll make my director proud. After Varanasi is released, the whole of India will be proud!"

Director SS Rajamouli praised the actor at the event and said, "On the first day, when Mahesh came in Lord Rama's get-up for the photoshoot, I got goosebumps. I was torn. Mahesh has the charm of Krishna but the calmness of Rama. Still, I was confident. I even set that photo as my wallpaper... and then removed it."

At the trailer launch, Mahesh Babu's wife Namrata Shirodkar and his daughter Sitara were present. In the viral videos, they were seen cheering for him.

Directed by SS Rajamouli, Varanasi also stars Priyanka Chopra and Prithviraj Chouhan. The film is slated for a theatrical release in 2027.