AR Rahman concert row: Cop who went on stage and stopped show midway reveals why he did it

The cop who recently stopped musician AR Rahman’s concert in Pune has now spoken about it. In a new interview, senior police inspector Santosh Patil said that he just did his job. He also shared that he tried to contact the organisers but since there was no response he had to go on the stage. (Also Read | AR Rahman breaks silence after Pune police stopped his show midway, shares clip of cop on stage)

AR Rahman’s show was stopped midway last week as it went past the permissible time of 10 pm. Recently, the musician spoke about the incident. Taking to Twitter, Rahman shared a video in which the cop was seen on the stage. The music composer called it ‘a rockstar moment’.

Speaking to Mirror, Santosh said, “I just did my job. I do not want to give any more comments. Anyway, as a police officer, I am not supposed to give interviews to the media. The Supreme Court has set a deadline of 10 pm after which no loud music is allowed to be played.”

He added, “I tried to contact the organisers but they did not respond. Therefore, I had to go onto the stage and ask Rahman and other performers to stop the music. I had no option as it was past the permissible time.”

On Monday, AR Rahman shared a video from his concert as he performed on stage along with his fellow musicians. While he performed, the cop walked on the stage and pointed at Rahman. This happened while AR Rahman’s song Sadda Haq from Rockstar played in the backdrop.

In the video, the words ‘thank you Pune for all the love and euphoria’ were written. He also wrote on the clip, “By the way we had a rockstar moment too ;).” As the video came to an end, AR Rahman addressed the audience and said, “Okay. I think we overpoured love and we are overboard the time. That’s it, we are done. Timing is over. I like this. Thank you city of Pune, the organisers, and the amazing band.” The video ended with the words ‘we hope to see you soon’ written on it.

Sharing the clip, AR Rahman captioned it, “Did we all just have the ‘Rockstar’ moment on stage yesterday? I think we did! We were overwhelmed by the love of the audience and kept wanting to give more…Pune, thank you once again for such a memorable evening. Here’s a little snippet of our roller coaster ride ;).”

Earlier, news agency PTI reported that event organiser, Dr Heramb Shelke, said stopping the show in this manner was disrespectful to Rahman, a composer admired and appreciated the world over, and it could have been done in a “decent manner”. “At the last moment, this should not have happened as the entire programme was well organised,” he had said.