While the actor himself did not turn up, scores of his fans did, and did what they do best.
A tense situation prevailed at the Hyderabad Press Club this morning when a large number of Pawan Kalyan's fans thronged the place to accost film critic Kathi Mahesh, who was addressing the media against the actor.
On Saturday Mahesh had dared the actor to come to the Press Club for an open debate on their ongoing cold war. While the actor did not turn up, scores of his fans expectedly did, and were jostling outside the Press Club, giving the police stationed there as a precautionary measure a tough time.
On coming to know that Mahesh had arrived at the Press Club, the fans tried to gatecrash the premises, saying, "Why do you want Pawan Kalyan to answer your questions? We are enough to tackle you." However, the police prevented them, and took dozens of the fans into custody.
Mahesh started the PC by listing the abusive comments made against him by Pawan Kalyan's fans in the social media. He alleged that the actor's fans were attacking him in the social media and on websites writing atrocious comments against him and his family members. He also alleged that Kalyan's fans were mentally torturing him in a variety of ways including putting photos of his family members in the social media.
Mahesh said he expected a solution to his problem from Pawan Kalyan, but the latter did not utter a word. Therefore he had come to the Press Club to air his opinions, and the government should take responsibility of his safety, he said.
"When Pawan Kalyan's estranged wife Renu Desai wanted to remarry, his fans openly declared that they would chop any man who married her into pieces. Why did he not warn his fans against making such attacks? I never spoke on his personal issues. I always raised the issues that are in the public domain. But his fans are attacking me personally abusing my wife, my mother and everyone in my family," he lamented.
Mahesh also questioned the legitimacy of Kalyan's relationship with actress Poonam Kaur, who came in support of the actor, and posed six questions to the actress about her relationship with her mentor.
For the uninitiated, Kathi Mahesh, a 40-something film critic and small-film-maker, has been criticizing Pawan Kalyan's lack of any concrete activity on the political front for a few months. He was also in Big Boss (Telugu) Season 1 and was evicted on day 27. Most Telugu people would have read somewhere or the other about the kind of abusiveness, raucousness and vilification that many of Pawan Kalyan's fans are known to display, and Mahesh is feeling the full brunt of it.