Rana Daggubati, Teja Sajja's joke about Sankranthi box office clash annoys Mahesh Babu fans

Teja Sajja and Rana Daggubati

Rana Daggubati and Teja Sajja hosted the IIFA Utsavam in Dubai recently. Videos from the grand show have now gone viral on social media The duo cracked jokes about the Telugu film industry during their hosting. However, some of their jokes has rubbed off fans and industry members in the wrong way.

What Rana Daggubati and Teja Sajja said about Mahesh Babu

In a video doing the rounds, Rana Daggubati is seen placing his hand on Teja Sajja's shoulder and praises him with words like, "He's still the same, away from controversies, very soft-spoken, the heartthrob of millions, the lover boy, the action star, the one and only..." Teja, embarrassed by the praise, interrupts him and asks him to stop. But Rana jokingly adds, "I'm talking about Mahesh Babu."

Rana then continues, saying that both Mahesh and Teja share a similar journey, having both been child actors. "He's a superstar; you're a superhero. Both of you came on Sankranthi," Rana said. Teja, sensing the sensitive topic, playfully asked him to stop mentioning the "Sankranthi matter." The video ends with Rana teasing, "Why, is it a sensitive topic?"

For context, this year the festival of Sankranthi saw a major four-way clash at the box office with four Telugu movies releasing. Teja Sajja's 'HanuMan', Mahesh Babu's' Guntur Kaaram', Venkatesh's Saindhav, and Nagarjuna's Naa Saami Ranga were released on the same day. While it was expected that big star films would win the big clash, 'HanuMan' surprised all by collecting Rs 295 cr worldwide.

Fans of Mahesh Babu took to social media to call out Rana Daggubati for his joke about a senior actor. On the other hand, some defended Rana saying that such jokes are common at Award shows.

What Rana Daggubati said about Ravi Teja's box office failure Mr Bachchan

At the show, Rana began a comedic bit by saying, "Bachchan garu ki ee year highest high and lowest low kuda chusaru. (Amitabh Bachchan has seen the highest high and lowest low this year)." To which Teja asked him, "Highest high Kalki. Lowest low enti. (The highest high is Kalki 2898 AD, what's his lowest low?)" Rana responded, "Ade monna release aindi ga, Mr…(The film that recently released, Mr…)" hinting at Mr Bachchan. Teja stopped him from revealing the film's name, but it was clear to everyone what he was talking about.

Several fans of the actor and director Harish Shankar tagged them in videos of the clip from IIFA Utsavam. The director broke his silence while responding to a fan and wrote in Telugu, "Enno…vinnanu tammudu…andulo idoti. Anni rojulu okela undavu. Nakaina…evarikaina…(I have faced a lot, brother. This is also one of those moments. All days won't stay the same. Be it for me or anyone else.)" He turned off the comments section while responding to the post, unwilling to deal with trolls.

For the unversed, Mr Bachchan is an adaptation of the 2018 Hindi film Raid. It was released on August 15, opened to negative reviews, and was a box office bomb.