'You cannot hide smoke after setting fire to things': Chiranjeevi and Dr Rajasekhar's verbal spat at MAA diary launch

On January 2, 2020, leading leaders of Movie Artists’ Association (MAA) namely Chiranjeevi, Mohan Babu, Krishnam Raju and T Subbarami Reddy assembled together where they launched the diary of the year. At the event, Chiranjeevi gave a speech where he spoke about how MAA started and the association's comparison with Tamil association Nadigar Sangam. The superstar stated, "MAA gurinchi manchi unte mike lo chepudamu, chedu unte chevilo cheppukundam.” (If there’s something good to say about MAA, let’s tell it to the world but keep it amongst ourselves if we have issues)."

Dr Rajasekhar seemed to got irked with the comments and he took the mike went on to say, "I have a lot of issues at home due to MAA. I have not worked since March and on top of that, at my home, my wife has invested most of her time in the association work. Chiranjeevi garu gave a brilliant speech but you cannot hide the smoke after setting fire to things."

Recalling his accident which took place last year in the month of November, Rajasekhar said, "Every family has issues within them but to not reveal them to others, we’re only ignoring the problem at hand. We all act like heroes on-screen but if someone within the association does good work, they trample it down."

He further said, "The MAA is divided now. I want to tell the truth because I’m tired of these lies. We’re not all kids. Anything should be told transparently."

After handing over the mike and leaving the stage, Chiranjeevi came up and said, "I am sorry and hurt he did this. He behaved so aggressively. I am only reacting because I cannot let this go. Let’s talk about something constructive instead of fighting like this. You should not even come if you don’t like it."

While Rajasekhar came back and said, "You should’ve told the truth before calling me here. I came on my own interest but the truth was hidden from me."