Hyderabad was successful. So was Mumbai. Lionel Messi looked happy, and so did Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul. This makes the contrast with Kolkata that much more stark. How could Telangana do it and not Kolkata? Why did we not follow the same template?
The reason is fairly simple. Hyderabad was all about Messi. Kolkata was about everything else but Messi.
In all honesty, it was a fairly simple event to execute, and yet it was complicated no end. When you have someone like Messi, all you needed to do was put him in an open-top jeep and get him to wave to the audience. Give him footballs to kick into the gallery, get him to take a few penalties, and you were done. No one wanted to watch anything else. No one cared for music, or Shah Rukh Khan, or anyone else. When you get a global superstar like Messi, just keep him at the centre of the story and keep things simple.
I did not go to the event. I had said no to hosting Delhi, for I felt things weren’t being done right. While I wished Satadru Dutta all the best and hoped my city would see something special, I was worried. In my interviews during the build-up, I had asked him what the plan was to ensure the fan was central to the show.
I am told Messi came in a van with a sunroof. If that was indeed the case, all that needed to be done was to get the car to do a few laps around the stadium and request Messi, Suarez, and De Paul to kick a few balls into the audience. A few laps and some shots, and all would have been satisfied. Everyone needed to see Messi. He was the draw, and no one cared for anything else.
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Almost 100 fans who bought tickets and whom I spoke to said the same thing. “We did not see Messi” was the refrain. No one said they did not see Shah Rukh or anyone else. That’s what the organisers did not understand. No moments needed to be created. Messi himself was the moment. Hyderabad understood this and executed it to perfection.
Satadru has now been remanded to 14 days of police custody. The issue has become a BJP vs TMC fight. It will not die down for sure. In all of this, where is the fan? The fans will continue to be the ones kicked about. I am hearing that ticket money will be refunded. What about flights? Some I know travelled from other cities to watch.
One, and I can name him, Atreyo Lahiri, son of Dr Koushik Lahiri, came from Edinburgh. I bought tickets and sent them to him. Someone I know came from Sydney. Again, I had sent him a ticket which I had purchased the day it went on sale. What happens to them?
Spare a thought for those who will never be able to watch Messi again. For them, it will forever remain a dream that turned into a nightmare. Each time I pass through Laketown, the statue will remind me of an event that shamed us all.
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