Well, today is megastar's big day and no one would want to play spoilsport especially at a time when the mega family is entertaining guests in one of the poshest hotels in the heart of the city.
Guests have been flown in from all over the country and Chiranjeevi will be blowing the candles and celebrating his 60th birthday in style. Indeed a setting befitting a megastar.
But a day before this rather glamourous do, another party was organized at a more humble destination – Shilpa Kala Vedika. Where Ram Charan could run up bills in crores for one evening, the entire event in Shilpa Kala Vedika cost mega fans Rs 15 lakhs.
A very small sum indeed for a celebrity, a politician, a megastar and a man who is connected to one of the biggest business families in India. However, it is this Rs 15 lakhs that has become debatable barely a day after the celebrations.
For a very, very long time, megastar has been maintaining that his fans matter most to him and that it is their love that has seen him go places.
In fact, at one public gathering, he had said that he wished that all his fans should be born as Chiranjeevi’s in their next life and that he must be their fan. And the extreme love of mega fans is well known in film circles.
Chiranjeevi had also said time and again that he has got used to his birthday being celebrated by his fans. ‘That’s become a yearly tradition now’ he had said at one time.
So, their organizing a birthday party for their icon is not the problem. They spending Rs 15 lakhs is also not the problem. But the ‘fans’ are people from lower income groups and for many of them contributing for the big day means a dent in their monthly income.
Still, megastar or the mega family hasn’t budged and bothered to give the money to the fans or at least give their share. While it is true that fans are what make a star, the star must also feel equally responsible for his fans.
To megastar, who earns in crores and to whom Rs 15 lakhs is hardly the amount that he and his family might spend in a week, Rs 15 lakhs is small change. But neither he nor any of his family members have contributed any money for the celebrations at Shilpa Kala Vedika.
Of course fans to show their love and adulation. Yet, there is no denying that had the mega family chipped in, it would have been a thoughtful gesture from their side.
And it’s not that megastar himself is not aware of this fact since all his fans organisations work in tandem with him and are constantly communicating with him.
Had he bothered, megastar could have at least paid Rs 5 lakh rent for Shilpa Kala Vedika or organized dinner for the 5000 fans who gathered there from various parts of both the Telugu speaking states.
On the other hand, probably the bill of even the floral décor at Park Hyatt could be much higher than Rs 15 lakhs.
However, there is always the proverbial benefit of doubt and the mega family could be really unaware of the extent to which the fans go to organize such functions.
Also, the fans who love Chiranjeevi like demi-god cannot possibly go up to him or his family and ask for money to organize his birthday bash. Still, since it is ‘the’ megastar, had he ordered food or at least paid the rent for the venue, it would have reflected his large-heartedness.
Though there is criticism brewing up in the industry, mega fans maintain that they never organized the birthday celebrations expecting money from the mega family.
Well, only the organisers must know the real story.
