Shubra Aiyappa left Tirupati temple just 15 minutes before stampede that left 6 dead: ‘The crowd was swelling’

Actor Shubra Aiyappa and her husband Vishal Sivappa were in Tirupati on the day the stampede occured. She recollects what happened.

Recently, a stampede at the Tirupati temple left six people dead. Actor Shubra Aiyappa and her husband Vishal Sivappa were on their annual trip to the religious place, leaving it just 15 minutes before the incident occurred, she told TOI. (Also Read: Balakrishna's Daaku Maharaaj pre-release event cancelled after Tirupati temple stampede that left 6 dead)

Shubra Aiyappa was in Tirupati recently with husband Vishal Sivappa.

Shubra Aiyappa on the near miss

Shubra told the publication that she was in Tirupati with Vishal and was at the place where the stampede occurred just minutes before it happened. She shared that they arrived in the city a day before darshan and decided to explore the preparations for the Vaikunta Ekadashi festival.

Shubra said, “We were in the same vicinity and had left the place 15 minutes before the incident unfolded. We noticed that there were a lot of cops, and security was extremely tight. There was so much jubilation because Vaikunta Ekadashi is one of the most important days in Tirupati. But the crowds were swelling as people lined up to fetch tokens. After soaking in the sights, we left for our rooms. Fifteen minutes later, we read that a stampede had occurred in the same spot, and some people had died.”

The actor expressed shock at the incident, stating that despite the crowd swelling, she ‘never imagined’ a stampede to occur, especially with the security in place. “There was such a celebratory spirit in the air, but at the same time, there were cries of pain. It was heartbreaking,” she recollected. Shubra also claimed that ‘everything was back to usual’ when she and Vishal returned to the temple for their darshan.

Shubra was last seen in the 2024 Kannada film Ramana Avatara. She debuted in 2014 with the Telugu film Prathinidhi.

What happened

Jostling among hundreds of devotees for tickets to a religious event in Tirupati is suspected to have caused the stampede that left at least six dead on Wednesday evening. Many people gathered for tickets for the annual Vaikunta Dwara Darshanam on Tirumala hills, an official from the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) told HT. During the darshan, devotees can visit the deity from the northern entrance of the temple beginning January 10. The pre-release event of Balakrishna’s Daaku Maharaaj, scheduled in Anantapur, was cancelled as a mark of respect after news of the stampede broke.