Hyderabad: Amid jubilations over the Golden Globe Award for the Best Original Song being conferred to 'Naatu Naatu' from 2022 Tollywood blockbuster RRR, controversy brewed on Twitter on Wednesday when Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy tweeted to congratulate the team for their feat. Bollywood singer Adnan Sami received sharp backlash from users after singling out Reddy's usage of the term 'Telugu flag' and criticizing the same.
"The #Telugu flag is flying high! On behalf of all of #AndhraPradesh, I congratulate @mmkeeravaani, @ssrajamouli, @tarak9999, @AlwaysRamCharan and the entire team of @RRRMovie. We are incredibly proud of you! #GoldenGlobes2023" Reddy's tweet read. Sami, however, was not happy with it. Taking the previous tweet to task, the singer questioned the Chief Minister's choice of words, asserting the latter should have used 'Indian flag', and further accusing him of having a separatist attitude.
"Telugu flag? You mean INDIAN flag right? We are Indians first & so kindly stop separating yourself from the rest of the country…Especially internationally, we are one country! This ‘separatist’ attitude is highly unhealthy as we saw in 1947!!! Thank you…Jai HIND!" Sami fired back, in a retaliatory tweet.
What followed was a barrage of criticism, as several users pointed to the singer that appreciation of an identity did not take away from the other. "Chill Mr Sami. I understand that this is beyond your comprehension. But we can be proud Indian and proud Telugu as well. There is nothing separatist in it" said one user.
"But you have taken an innocent statement of regional pride out of context and are now forcing 600K fellow Indians to see your perspective through a separatist lens just because it was not 'worded politically correctly'" said another.
