IPL 2023 kicked off with two big Southern movie stars Rashmika Mandanna and Tamannaah Bhatia performing at the opening ceremony. Earlier the preparation videos of these two actresses had also gone viral creating quite a hype about how they would perform. Movie lovers were more eager to catch Rashoo performing on her latest big hit ‘Saami Saami’ from Pushpa: The Rise.
While she did receive applause for her hook step and overall dancing on this song, it was the way that she performed on RRR’s Oscar-winning song Naatu Naatu that raised a lot of eyebrows.
Undoubtedly, what Jr NTR and Ram Charan achieved with their high-voltage energy and dancing skills can be very difficult to match. However, even then the expectations were quite high because Rashmika has a huge following in the Southern film industry and is the current heart crush of India. People expected at least a decent performance from the Geetha Govindam actress. It was the first live performance by any star on a stage on this iconic song after it won the Academy Awards this year.
Fans expected Rashmika to at least match the tempo and energy level of the song. But surprisingly, the Southern beauty simply failed to make an impact with her dance and many of her steps were quite loose. It seemed that she had not practiced the steps well.
While a few fans tweeted that Rashoo’s dance was cringe, a few said that it just took away their mood. However, Bollywood’s current number one singer Arijit Singh made up for all the loss of mood that Rashmika’s dance had created.
His performance was widely appreciated by the audience. As he started crooning his hit number 'Channa Mere Ya Mere Ya', the audience in the stadium started clapping and matching the rhythm with Arijit. The Drone Show also helped in elevating the mood of the audience who were eagerly waiting for this star-studded evening held at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.