Police stopped AR Rahman's concert midway in Pune. Here's what happened

Music maestro AR Rahman's live concert was abruptly stopped in Pune by the police after it crossed the 10 pm deadline. On May 1, the Oscar-winning music composer was performing live when a police officerwent onto the stage and stopped hisperformance.

The video from the concertshows an officerasking Rahman and other musicians present on the stage to stop the performance. Soon after the video went viral, the Pune Police also issued a statement stating that their performance surpassedthe 10 pm deadline.

As per the order by the Supreme Court of India, loud music is banned in open spaces in Pune after 10 pm.

News agency ANI tweeted, “Pune Police stopped music maestro AR Rahman from singing during his concert last night after he continued to perform beyond the permissible time of 10 pm.”

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Rahman was performing at the concert organised by Feeding Smiles and 2BHK at The Mills on Raja Bahadur Mill Road. Later, the owner of 2 BHK Heramb Shelk reacted to the incident and said that theyhad no intentionof breaking the law.

As per HT, he said, “We never wanted to breach the law and our intention to organise the event was to uplift the city’s happiness index. If the police had asked us without going on to the dais, we would have immediately stopped the event.”

No case has been registered in this connection, a senior police official has said.

Bundgarden police station's inspector Santosh Patil, said, "As the deadline of 10 pm had passed, we asked him (Rahman) and other artists to stop the show. They followed the instructions and stopped the show.''

Later, AR Rahman thanked the people of Pune for all the love during "a roller coaster concert". His tweet reads, ''Pune! Thank you for all the love and euphoria last night! Was such a roller coaster concert! No wonder Pune is home to so much classical music! We shall be back soon to sing with you all again!''

Rahman has not reacted to the incident but his close aide has expressed disappointment and said that police could have talked to the organisers first.

"10 pm was the curfew time but they've said it's the last song and only a minute left. The police official went to the stage and asked ARR directly to stop, pointing fingers at him. Police should have talked to the organisers or other control booth," the aide said.

Soon after the video went viral, fans started reacting.

''Extremely disappointing of #PunePolice to shut down #ARRahman ‘s concert in #Pune at 10.14 pm. While the rule of the 10 pm cutoff is understood, this is not how a visiting artist of his stature should have been treated. He was almost on his finale song when this happened👇🏻cc @CPPuneCity,'' one user commented.

''Nothing wrong with the police doing their job. It's not the police's fault the concert started later due to lack of darkness,'' another wrote.

(With inputs from the agency)

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