KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 13 — Hundreds of women were left traumatised after being groped at a recent concert of Indian Oscar-winning singer-composer AR Rahman.
Tickets to his Marakkuma Nenjam concert at Adityaram Palace held two days ago in Chennai were oversold almost twice over, resulting in a nightmare scenario of panic-stricken concert-goers trying to get out of a 45,000-strong stampeding crowd.
Local media reported that many had fainted and children were separated from their mothers in the chaos while countless women were sexually assaulted by groping men.
Despite first-hand accounts and eye-witness videos going viral on social media, the 56-year-old singer-composer only offered a refund to concert-goers who were unable to gain entry despite having tickets.
He posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: “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 [email protected] along with your grievances. Our team will respond asap.”
He did not, however, react to claims of sexual assault and his seemingly heartless statement has angered many on social media, reported News 18.
“Did he actually write this? What he wrote seems so out of context and just...irrelevant,” said a reddit user.
“Sounds like a horrifying experience and while I love ARR’s work, what a pathetic response. Yes, the onus is definitely on the organisers of the concert but as the headlining name/crowd puller you should also take the precautions to make sure the event is going smoothly. You can’t just sit there blind and deaf to these things,” said another.
“What is wrong with him? Who responds like this!?” asked a third.
“It’s pathetic!! Now we can’t even go to concerts because of men. They literally just want us to stay at home but no we aren’t even safe at our own homes. And what is this response by ARR?”
A police investigation concluded that concert organiser ACTC should have sold around 20,000 tickets for a capacity of 25,000 instead of 35,000 to 40,000.
