Actor Rishab Shetty, who has delivered yet another blockbuster with the second installment of his Kantara franchise, Kantara Chapter 1, has responded to the recent Karur stampede in actor Vijay's political party rally, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), political rally. The Kantara actor, in a recent interview with NDTV, referred to the whole unfortunate incident as a 'collective mistake' as opposed to a person's failure. The actor said, “I don’t think it was one person’s mistake. Maybe it was a collective mistake made by many. Maybe it could have been controlled — that’s why we call it an accident. It was not intentional,” he said." Also Read | Vijay’s Karur rally stampede: The problem of star worship and celebrity obsession is at the heart of the tragedy Rishab also commented on the aspect of hero worship and how he sees it. "If we like a hero or his character, we do hero worship. How can I comment on that? It’s unfortunate when such accidents happen; around 40 people died there.” The actor was also quick to point out the futility of wholly blaming only the police and organizers in such cases where crowd control becomes difficult, " We can easily blame the police or the government — they do have responsibility. But sometimes they also face trouble controlling a mob,” Rishab explained. Also Read | Dhruv Vikram says he considers Bison his first film: ‘It’s not a problem even if you haven’t seen my earlier films’ The Karur incident raised a whole lot of issues with respect to the careless handling of crowds and masses in public events. The incident, which involved the loss of 40 people, including children and women, was largely attributed to poor organization and management on the part of the event organizers and TVK party, led by actor Vijay. Questions were also raised about how Vijay handled the situation and the fact that he left the venue for Chennai despite knowing the situation on the ground. many also wondered why he never visited Karur and met the families of deceased. He later shared a clarification video on his 'X' handle, clarifying his unwavering support with the families of the deceased. Recently, the actor had a video call with each family with assurances of his support to them and a promise to visit them all personally soon.
