Overview
- Authorities reported preventive detentions and said the programme proceeded without interruption.
- Former Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu led the unveiling with Minister D. Sridhar Babu, Bandaru Dattatreya and BJP state chief N. Ramchander Rao, alongside SPB’s family.
- Statehood activists opposed the installation, citing an allegation that SPB refused in 2004 to sing Andesri’s ‘Jaya Jayahe Telangana’.
- K. Kavitha backed calls to prioritise Telangana folk artists at the venue and suggested a different location for the statue.
- Speakers underscored SPB’s pan-Indian legacy of over 40,000 songs in 14 languages, and the tribute is a 7.2-foot bronze crafted in East Godavari.