Fan wars not new to Kannada film industry

Slipper attack on Darshan is the latest addition to a bunch of infamous incidents that have hit Sandalwood

Pailwaan

Sudeep in the Rummy Now advertisement.

Jaggesh

The gun controversy

Gandha Gudi (1973) is the only film in which two stalwarts of Kannada cinema — Dr Rajkumar and Dr Vishnuvardhan — acted together. Vishnuvardhan, an up and coming star then, was playing antagonist to Rajkumar, who had already attained the superstar status in Karnataka.

An untoward incident took place during the shoot of the film’s climax in Kalanakote forest. Vishnuvardhan was supposed to point a gun and threaten Rajkumar’s character. Due to a blunder by an assistant director, Vishnuvardhan was given a loaded gun. But Prabhakar, the serving range forest officer, realised the danger in the nick of time and rushed to the spot to stop Vishnuvardhan from pulling the trigger. Stories say Vishnuvardhan was hounded for years by admirers of Rajkumar. They believed that the actor had intentionally wished to cause harm to Rajkumar.

Initially, the outrage against Vishnuvardhan was so much that he had to shift to Chennai to feel safe. However, both actors remained friends throughout.

‘Pailwaan’ piracy row

Sudeep’s Pailwaan, released in 2019, fell prey to piracy. The sports drama was available on several websites for free after its release. Reports said those claiming themselves to be fans of Darshan were behind the controversy. A self-confessed Darshan fan was even arrested for leaking the film on Facebook.

Audio clip causes furore

In February last year, an alleged audio clip had Jaggesh making derogatory remarks to Darshan and his fans. Jaggesh tried to clarify that he was talking about a web designer named Darshan and not the actor.

But Darshan’s fans, enraged by the audio, stormed into the sets of Jaggesh’s film Totapuri. They forced an apology from the senior actor in front of the camera. Jaggesh took to social media to express his anger at the incident. The controversy came to an end when Darshan apologised to Jaggesh on behalf of his fans.

Sudeep’s Rummy association irks writer

In 2020, writer Ahoratra condemned Sudeep for being the ambassador of the online game Rummy. He was later attacked at his residence by a bunch of men claiming to be Sudeep’s fans. Ahoratra filed a complaint against the men for creating a hostile situation at his house.