VIJAYAWADA: Traffic snarls were witnessed on NH-16 from Kanakadurga Varadhi to Haailand in Chinakakani on Saturday in view of the pre-release event of Chiranjeevi’s comeback film ‘Khaidi No. 150’ as a large number of his fans from different parts of Krishna and Guntur districts attended it. The city roads also witnessed heavy vehicular traffic.
Hundreds of Chiranjeevi fans took out a padayatra from Tadepalli to the event venue near Haailand wishing the success of their favourite star’s film at box office. His fans also organised bike rallies from Vijayawada, Guntur and Tenali hailing Chiranjeevi and his brother Pawan Kalyan.
Huge cut-outs of Chiranjeevi and flexis of ‘Khaidi No. 150’ were set up en route and at the venue. The film’s star cast including Kajal Agarwal, Brahmanandam and Tarun Arora, family members Naga Babu, Ram Charan, Allu Arjun, Varun Tej, Sai Dharam Tej, film director Dasari Narayana Rao and several other film personalities attended the event.
The police had a tough time in regulating the traffic on the highway while Chiranjeevi was going to the venue of the pre-release event from Gannavaram airport. People proceeding towards Guntur faced severe hardships in negotiating the traffic snarls. Traffic went haywire between Mangalagiri and Chinakakani, Kaza toll plaza and Chinakakani with hundreds of fans of Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan making their way to the mega event.
Though the venue was not such a big to host a huge congregation, the event organisers issued passes in thousands, which irked many of the fans as they had to return without watching the pre-release function of their favourite hero.
They also expressed their dissatisfaction over poor seating arrangements at the venue for a mega event. Raising slogans against the event organisers, some fans barged into the venue by removing the barricades which created a chaos at the place. Police resorted to lathi-charge to restore normalcy. One person suffered minor injuries and he was immediately shifted to hospital.
At one point, several fans of Pawan Kalyan waved the flags of Jana Sena Party and raised slogans hailing their hero, which interrupted the pre-release event. However, none of mega family heroes made any comments on Pawan Kalyan’s absence at the function.
Chiranjeevi delivered his famous dialogue from ‘Indra’ film ‘Rananukunara Ralenanukunara’, which rejoiced his fans. “Khaidi No. 150 is a feast for my fans who are eagerly waiting for my 150th film for nearly a decade. They can proudly say that ‘Boss is Back’ after watching the film,” he said.
Guntur Range Inspector General of Police N Sanjay, who visited the venue, urged Chiranjeevi to make his speech crisp as they were finding it difficult to control the fans. Responding to the IG’s appeal, Chiranjeevi made his speech short and left the venue. Later, police quickly restored normalcy on the highway by regulating the vehicular traffic.