(This author has interacted very closely in US trips of Pawan Kalyan and Kalyan Ram)
Allu Arjun’s “DJ Success Trip” to US has been a disaster to say the least. A trip which was planned as a PR building exercise and to increase his fan base in the US has turned out anything but. Allu Arjun’s last few movies have been failures in US even though they did fairly well in India. While his New Jersey and Bay area DJ exclusive events received lukewarm attendance ( mere 100-200 people) , he shot himself in the foot where there was an opportunity to win hearts of mammoth 4,000 people gathering at Chicago NATS event.
One of the best ways to connect to any audience would be to talk about them and empathize with them. Allu Arjun did the exact opposite in his current US trip. He seldom interacted with NRI’s. All his speeches were about piracy and whining about reviews. He didn’t even acknowledge the politicians and other movie stars attending the event. The audience ( in some cases paying $60) came to interact with him and have a good time knowing his personal side, and not to be lectured about watching piracy and whether they should watch a movie based on reviews or not. People were bored with the DJ unit’s prolonged seminars on ‘How to watch a Telugu film ?’.
Kalyram Nandamuri in his recent trip to Chicago and St.Louis did talk less about any of his or his brother’s movies. He talked primarily about how he missed Chicago city and how he liked the lifestyle in USA. He also talked about donating back to motherland — topics that are relevant for the audience.
If Allu Arjun’s whole USA trip was lackluster, his trip to Chicago was even worse. From the moment he disembarked the chartered flight, he seems he didn’t want to be there. The below mentioned two incidents explain how much Bunny disappointed the NRIs during his tour.
“When the star entered Renaissance hotel (where the NATS conference is organized), throngs of people stood by waving their hands. Instead of reciprocating to them in the hotel lobby, Allu Arjun walked with his head down, and was talking to director of DJ, Harish Shankar (who has been travelling all the while with him)”
“In another incident in Chicago, Allu Arjun gave permission to 20 kids to take pictures with him near his Presidential Suite. But sent all the kids back because there were around 30 kids and few adults, more than he gave permission for”.
Take a similar incident involving Pawan Kalyan. After attending the Harvard Conference and in a time crunch to catch his flight, Pawan got into his convoy to leave to the airport. A number of people who came from Canada have been waiting in the rain to get a picture with him. When organizers told him “Anna ! kurrollu Canada nunchi vaccharu Morning nunchi wait chestunnaru“, he immediately stopped the convoy, took a group picture with them in the rain and told them to drive home carefully. Quite a contrast!! However, in New Jersey and Bay area smaller events which were exclusive DJ events, Allu arjun has posed with all attended groups ( smaller in number).
No one anticipates celebrities to pose for photos with hundreds of audience in the large events, but in these large conventions it is minimum courtesy to entertain few.
A trip which was intended to win the love of US people, has brought out the attitude of Allu Arjun, opined an NRI who was quite disappointed . Bunny is known for his down to earth approach off screen, but it appears some ill-advise or lack of knowledge of proceedings in USA , dashed with success getting into head .. might have caused this fiasco. An expensive trip, missed its goal by far due to lack of little homework.
Its high time Bunny alters his approach and do something so that he can win the hearts of NRIs.