Ram Gopal Varma UPSET With Padma Vibhushan Award 2024 Winners: 'If Chiranjeevi Gaaru Is...'

Chiranjeevi was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan Award on Thursday, January 24. Chiranjeevi is among the five people this year to have been honoured with Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian honour awarded for exceptional and distinguished service. While director Ram Gopal Varma expressed his joy for the veteran actor, there is a catch!

Ram Gopal Varma took to the microblogging site X, formerly known as Twitter, and wrote, “I never heard of Shri Padma Subrahmanyam or Shri Bindeshwar Pathak and so to put them in the same position as MEGA STAR, I am not at all thrilled with the award, but if @chirutweets gaaru is happy I will also pretend to be happy .”

While Padma Subrahmanyam is a world-renowned Indian classical Bharatanatyam dancer, Bindeshwar Pathak was a sociologist and social entrepreneur, who passed away in August last year. Ram Gopal Varma’s comment did not sit well with some netizens, who asked him to increase his knowledge and broaden his horizons.

One person wrote, “You should more read about Bindeshwar Pathak.” Another added, “Because your knowledge is limited to few states or regions and few fields only.” Someone else commented, “If you have not heard about Bindeshwar Pathak then it is your problem. He is not less than a superstar or what you say Mega Star.”

Meanwhile, Chiranjeevi reacted to his win by giving a heartwarming speech. Chiranjeevi shared that he was “speechless” after he got to know about the honour and said that he was “overwhelmed, humbled and grateful” about it.