The grand pooja ceremony for the upcoming multistarrer ‘Venky Anil 5’ was held in Hyderabad with much fanfare. The film is directed by Anil Ravipudi and features Venkatesh, Kalyan Ram, Keerthy Suresh and Krithi Shetty in the lead roles. Many veterans from the film industry were seen at the launch ceremony including the renowned director Raghavendra Rao who shot the first ceremonial shot. Even though the launch of the film created excitement among its fans, the video shot during the event suddenly became a topic of discussion on social media.
Raghavendra Rao’s first shot video goes viral
Shortly after the ceremony, a video showing Raghavendra Rao directing the first shot began circulating online. The clip shows the veteran filmmaker closely guiding the actors and actresses during the scene. However, some felt his interaction with the heroines was unnecessary and that he did not need to touch them physically to explain the shot. The video went viral very fast through X, Instagram, and other social platforms. What was meant to be a celebratory launch moment soon turned into a topic of controversy.
Fans react strongly on social media
The clip went viral and netizens had strong feelings. But many others criticized the visuals, though some backed the veteran director and called his actions part of filmmaking. Some users questioned the need for physical gestures, feeling the scene could have been explained verbally.Comments such as “Why does he touch women like that? He could do the same scene without touching them. Creepy Raghavendra Rao”, “Raghavendra Rao garu, what exactly is this behaviour?” , and “Ee musalodiki muttukokunda cheppadam rada.. prati ammayini ilane chestadu” quickly spread across social media platforms. Another user wrote, “This isn’t the first time such visuals have gone viral. After the backlash over the Niharika video, one would expect that you had learned how to behave. Yet here we are again, having the same conversation.” As the discussion about the matter continued to escalate, the movie launch took a backseat as the discussion mostly centered around the director’s actions in the video.
Niharika’s video resurfaces amid fresh backlash
The recent controversy has also drawn attention to the earlier viral video between the veteran filmmaker and Niharika Konidela. Last year, during the launch of another movie, the duo had been involved in a controversial interaction that later became the talk of the town on social media. Whereas there were heated discussions then about whether the behavior was proper, today, with another viral video involving Venky Anil, people are drawing parallels between the two events and wondering why such matters keep repeating.
