The press had a complete coverage of Superstar’s visit to Thirupathi and his donation of one crore for a digital display at the holy shrine. What they had not covered is the incident which occurred just before the Thirupathi visit. Velan, one of Rajinikanth’s close friends had a sudden demise. Velan was a friend whom Rajini had known right from his film institute days. Rajinikanth, who rarely attends death funerals visited Velan’s household before he took off to Thirupathi and subsequently to Hyderabad for Sivaji’s shooting.

Close quarters to Rajini, say that the actor was quite a bit shaken by the turn of events. It was just a week ago that Rajini had advised Velan to be with his family. Velan who was staying away from his family for sometime, heeded to Rajini’s advice and was about to reunite with his family. This was when the unfortunate thing happened.