New Delhi: A.R. Rahman’s latest Chennai concert, titled ‘Marakkuma Nenjam’, has been in the news since morning because of the mismanagement and everything that went wrong during the concert. Many fans, who attended the concert, took to social media and called it a ‘harrowing experience’ and wrote about the stampede-like situation, and bad audio. Many were not even allowed to enter the concert despite having tickets. There were also reports of molestation of women in the crowd. After responding to the fans on social media, the music composer shared what went wrong in a interview.
In a conversation with The Hindu, Rahman said, “The organisers (ACTC events) had put together about 46,000 chairs in the venue. In some sections, everybody sat on one side and didn’t move to the other side. Seeing this, the policemen on duty assumed that the venue was full and closed it. By this time, the show had already started inside. This was like a cyclone we did not plan for. We did 20 concerts in the US last year, and everything was smooth and trouble free — because we trusted the system there. ‘Marakkuma Nenjam’ is India’s highest-sold show till date, which is great, but it is more important how we treat people than the actual concert itself. And that, I had little control over. I knew what all songs to pack in, which singers to rope in, and what musical surprises to give fans, but going forward, artistes have to take leadership on measuring contractually what goes into these arrangements.”
Earlier, the actor had asked fans to send across a picture of their tickets along with the grievances they faced at the venue.
The music composer took to X and wrote, “Dearest Chennai Makkale, those of you who purchased tickets and weren’t able to enter owing to unfortunate circumstances, please do share a copy of your ticket purchase to arr4chennai@btos.in along with your grievances. Our team will respond asap🙏@BToSproductions @actcevents.”
On Instagram, he posted the same message with a caption that read, “🙏🤲🏼 some people call me G.O.A.T …………let me be the sacrificial goat this time for all of us to wake up ..let chennai’s live art flourish with a world class infrastructure,increase in tourism, efficient crowd management,traffic management ,refining audiences to follow rules ..creating a safe and surreal experience for children and women ..Triggering a cultural renaissance at chennai celebrating our deserving ,illuminated local and international talent ! 🕊️✌️”
The concert was held in Adityaram Palace City in East Coast Road, Chennai on Sunday evening.