'The Raja Saab' released on January 9 and has been in theatres for nearly two weeks. The film received mixed reviews.
As expected, social media saw trolling from anti-fans, which Prabhas fans initially countered strongly. However, during this phase, the response largely remained limited to online arguments and there were no serious incidents.
Despite fears that director Maruthi might be personally targeted, surrounding at his house, Prabhas fans largely showed restraint and proved large hearted.
As other festival releases took attention and Raja Saab continued some box-office run, discussions around the film gradually faded. Neither strong praise nor harsh criticism dominated.
Suddenly, on January 21, the situation changed dramatically. Social media witnessed an intense and coordinated attack on director Maruthi and creative producer SKN.
Throughout the day, Twitter was flooded with hundreds of abusive posts, memes and comments, largely from Prabhas fans.
The scale and organisation of the trolling shocked industry observers and even other fan groups, making it appear like a planned campaign.
The underlying intent seems to be to fix blame for the film’s failure solely on director Maruthi and his friend and creative producer of the film, SKN.
While a director does bear responsibility for a film’s outcome, failure is collective, involving the hero, producers and the entire team. Singling out and relentlessly trolling the director is unfair and troubling.
Only Prabhas can stop this hostility. A single statement from him, stressing collective responsibility, could calm his fans. Without that, the trolling may continue unabated.
However, the history of Tollywood shows that no star hero has stepped in to protect a director’s image when fans turn hostile.
It remains to be seen whether Prabhas will break this long-standing trend and prove himself a true Baahubali; not just on screen, but in spirit as well.