Chiranjeevi draws flak for ‘dancing with girl’ comment at Telangana summit; internet calls out his choice of words

Telugu actor Chiranjeevi was one of the chief guests at the Telangana Rising Global Summit. His speech drew flak due to this.

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy held the Telangana Rising Global Summit in Hyderabad on Tuesday. Chiranjeevi was one of the chief guests at the event, which was also attended by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery and industrialist Anand Mahindra. However, a comment he made on stage has been drawing flak on the internet.

Chiranjeevi spoke about shooting a film at the Telangana Rising Global Summit.

What did Chiranjeevi say?

Chiranjeevi began his speech by talking about how he felt out of place at the global summit and said, “You may feel that every other chief guest present here belongs to fields such as finance, automobile, or politics. You might feel like, what is a film star like Chiranjeevi doing here? Not just you, even I feel that way.”

He then stated that CM Revanth was insistent that he come and had sent Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka and IT Minister D Sridhar Babu to invite him. He added, “Do you know what position I was in when they came to invite me? Evaro ammai to dance chestu unnanu Annapurna Studios lo (I was dancing with some girl at Annapurna Studios). I felt very awkward. I had to ask them to stop shooting for a while.”

How did the internet react?

Many on X (formerly Twitter) thought that the actor didn’t need to mention that he was dancing with a girl on a stage like that, or phrase it that way. One X user wrote, “He has completely lost his senses. Bringing up a ‘girl’ topic was totally unnecessary here. He could have simply said he was in a shooting.”

Another wrote, “At some point of time we should stop inviting celebrities who cannot have control on words to this kind of submit.” An X user commented, “I think when we grow up we lose control on choice of words.” One pointed out, “ni profession ni nuv cheyadaniki ibbandhi enduku....dance ae kada chesedi (What is there to feel awkward about dancing in your profession?)”

Some thought the choice of words was not only poor, but odd to bring up at a global summit. “Global Summit lo evi kuda cheptharaa (We say such things at a global summit too),” wrote one, while another commented, “Yakada emi matladalo teliyakapote yala boss (How come you don’t know what to talk about and when, Boss?)”

Last seen in the 2023 films Waltair Veerayya and Bhola Shankar, Chiranjeevi has Vishwambhara, Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu and an untitled film with Srikanth Odela lined up.