SS Rajamouli's son was in tears due to glitches at Mahesh Babu's Varanasi event: ‘I got emotional, angry’

The title reveal event of SS Rajamouli's Varanasi in Hyderabad was riddled with technical glitches. Karthikeya reveals how they dealt with it.

When SS Rajamouli held a grand event in Hyderabad to unveil the title of his next film, Varanasi, it was riddled with glitches that set the event back by quite some time. The event for the film starring Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra and Prithviraj Sukumaran was attended by the press around the world. Rajamouli’s son, producer SS Karthikeya, reveals that he was in tears by the time he sorted out the technical glitch backstage.

SS Karthikeya and Mahesh Babu worked together for SS Rajamouli's Varanasi.

SS Rajamouli’s son reveals chaos at Varanasi event

Karthikeya shot a promotional video with anchor Suma and actor Fahadh Faasil for the upcoming film, Don’t Trouble The Trouble. The anchor spoke about working at the Varanasi event and told Fahadh, “I have been doing these audio functions and pre-release events. My first one was Rajamouli sir’s Student No 1. He is the only director who will do rehearsals for the pre-release event. After that, he (Karthikeya) only did for the teaser launch. Addressing Karthikeya, she added, “How did you feel when there was a glitch at the event? Because I kept thinking it’ll play now.”

Karthikeya candidly responded, “It was like a war room inside the tent. To be honest, I felt like crying. I got emotional, angry, with I don’t know whom. It was nobody’s mistake. It’s just that we couldn’t test it beforehand, as Baba (Rajamouli) said. Drones were hovering around all night. Technically, we have a very strong team. It was not that we had it in the wrong format or anything. It’s just that we needed to test it beforehand. But when it played the third time, I yelled like Nani from Jersey. No exaggeration.”

Suma likenes Varanasi event to rocket launch

Suma mentioned that not just Karthikeya but everyone on the film’s team was in tears. “Rama garu was in tears. Most of the people were in tears. I was in tears. It felt like we had launched a rocket, like ISRO. The pre-release had all the emotions of the cinema,” she said, as the producer added, “Baba also, when he took the stage, you could see his voice was a little…Namrata (Shirodkar) ma’am was praying.”

The anchor then addressed how Karthikeya’s mom, Rama, got annoyed with her, stating, “The only person happily going around was me. I was with Rama garu, and she got irritated. I was like, I have no other option, please talk to me. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that event.”

Director Rajamouli co-wrote Varanasi with his father, writer V Vijayendra Prasad and cousin, SS Kanchi. Deva Katta wrote the dialogues. It is produced by KL Narayana and Karthikeya under Sri Durga Arts and Showing Business. It will be released in theatres on April 7, 2027, for Ugadi.