Chennai: Superstar Rajinikanth on Wednesday attracted negative publicity that he could ill afford ahead of his new movie release – 2.0 as a sequel to sci fi fiction Enthiran — shooting for which was going on in Triplicane in Chennai.

As the shooting was holding up traffic in the narrow lane, television news reporters and camera crew began filming the event and the chaos it was creating.

A pregnant lady, stuck in traffic as her auto could not move, had to get down and walk in the crowded traffic held up due to shooting. In fact, police gave permission to the film unit to shoot late in the night and early morning, but clearly the shooting was progressing during day time when morning traffic peaks.

Rajinikanth was however not present during the shooting on Wednesday.

When the media crew were taking pictures of the traffic snarls created by the film shooting of 2.0 starring Rajinikanth and directed by S Shankar that film unit members attacked the journalists, injuring three of them. The film crew personnel were also angry after journalists questioned the film unit as to how could they occupy the road and block it and inconvenience the people.

The attack led to protests from media personnel, who also lodged complaints against the film crew with the Ice House police station.

The police took three persons from the film unit and detained them for questioning.

Film director S Shankar then rushed to the Chennai Press Club, where he apologized for the attack on journalists by his film crew members. “I am sorry. I shall ensure incidents like this don’t repeat. It has happened without my knowledge,” Shankar told media persons.

After Shankar apologized, the media persons agreed to withdraw the complaint they lodged with the police. The media persons had filed a complaint against the film’s production manager, a bounder and a relative of director Shankar.

The film crew were abusive, used foul language and attacked the journalists, said one of the photographers present at the spot.

The film stars Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar and has Amy Jackson as its heroine. Most of the shooting for 2.0 is over. Only some patch work and a song remained to be canned, according to the director.