Stand up comic Munawar Faruqui performed his show ‘Dongri to Nowhere’ at Shilpakala Vedika on Saturday evening to loud cheers and catcalls from the audience. A dragnet of police presence from early hours around the venue, intense frisking and profiling ensured that there was no disruption to the show despite a threat by Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Raja Singh. However, there were seven attempts to raise slogans, including by a woman, on the main road outside the venue and the miscreants were bundled away by waiting policemen.
Hundreds of policemen guarded the venue in a 200-metre radius, as police sirens wailed intermittently. Traffic under the HiTec City flyover was stopped for some time just before the beginning of the show at 5.30 p.m. adding to evening weekend rush hour in the western part of the city.
While Faruqui’s Bengaluru show on August 19 was cancelled, the Hyderabad programme was sold out at the 2100-seater venue. “There were no religious jokes. Some jokes were political and we had a good laugh,” said Sayeeda, a resident of Moghalpura who watched the show with her mother. Some members of the audience felt that the jokes were repeated from his earlier 2019 show in the city. “I had fun. I am surprised that there was so much misinformation about the show,” said Muhammad Ruman, a student who came from Toli Chowki to watch it with his friend.
Faruqui, winner of 2022-Lock Upp, has had to face a series cancellation of his shows across the country.
The event in Hyderabad acquired a higher profile after Faruqui thanked IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao for the invitation: “Taking up on your kind invitation @KTRTRS Sir.” Mr. Rao invited Faruqui to perform in the city after a series of his events were cancelled under pressure from right wing groups.
“This is just routine bandobust. Nothing out of ordinary happened today. We are used to this,” said a police official at 8 p.m. after the end of the show.
