During the event, Rajamouli was unable to play a glimpse of his upcoming film Varanasi starring Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra and Prithviraj Sukumaran due to technical issues.

Visibly disturbed by the glitches, Rajamouli recalled his father, writer Vijayendra Prasad's words where he said Lord Hanuman's blessings were with the team.

"Is this how he (Lord Hanuman) is helping me," said Rajamouli, who claimed he does not believe in God.

Stating his wife Rama also believes in Lord Hanuman, the filmmaker said as quoted by The Times of India, "My wife has a great devotion to Lord Hanuman. She talks to Him like He's her friend. I even got angry with her for a while. Let's see,"

"..Father, if your Hanuman saved me once, let’s see if my wife’ Hanuman does it again," Rajamouli said while attempting to play the sequence again as reported by the daily.

Rajamouli was slammed for his remark with several netizens even giving a call to boycott Varanasi.

Reactions