Actor Chiranjeevi’s period film Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy received a noisy welcome on Wednesday as cinema-goers thronged the theatres to catch the movie. Released in five languages, including Hindi and Tamil, the film nearly had 700 shows through the day with some cinema halls having up to six screenings in 498 halls in Nizam area.
The holiday for Gandhi Jayanti brought in students in large numbers to cinema halls. “I don’t know how the movie is, but I want to watch it. My friends have gone inside to get the tickets,” said M. Srinivas, an Intermediate student at Eshwar Theatre at Attapur. Inside the cinema hall, the excitement was palpable as fans brought a 15-feet garland to drape around the poster of Chiranjeevi. Squabbles broke out at the cinema hall after a housefull board was put out by the staff. “Most of the tickets are sold online. We cannot do anything,” one of the staffers tried to explain to a visitor.
At RTC Crossroads which has several cinema halls, the movie craze was of a different order as fans poured milk on the posters, cracked coconuts, danced and beat drums before the first show of the day. The excitement stems from the fact that this is Chiranjeevi’s second movie after years in politics.
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The plot line is based on the life and times of Uyyalwada Narasimha Reddy, a feudal lord in Rayalaseema area, who refused to pay taxes to the British during a drought. The movie directed by Surinder Reddy also stars Amitabh Bachchan, Nayanthara and Tamannah. The excitement on social media was muted as Twitter went down in India for some time, and users complained about the delay in posting comments and photographs.