Hyderabad’s Lulu Mall Incident Is a Civic Failure, Not a Crowd Problem

The mobbing of actor Nidhi Agarwal at a Hyderabad mall wasn’t just a failure of security or event management. It was a reminder of a deeper, more uncomfortable truth: civic sense is still missing in our society.

Hundreds of people chose to push forward, ignore personal space, and treat a public place like a free-for-all. No amount of barricades can excuse that.

At a promotional event for The Raja Saab at Lulu Mall, Hyderabad, the actress was mobbed by a crowd, her personal space breached, her movement restricted, her discomfort visible on camera. The event had no official permission. There was no adequate security. And when the crowd surged, there was no system in place to stop it.

This is not merely a celebrity incident. It is a civic one.

India has seen this pattern repeatedly at political rallies, religious events, sports celebrations, and film promotions. Every time, the script is the same: unmanaged crowds, a sudden surge, and then shock when things spiral out of control. We react only after someone is hurt, harassed, or worse.

The truth is uncomfortable but necessary: law enforcement cannot manufacture civic sense. It must exist within the public. Rules work only when people believe in restraint, not just consequences.

The Hyderabad incident exposes a deeper problem: the normalisation of disorder in public life.

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Organisers treated safety as an afterthought. Authorities were absent because rules were ignored. And members of the crowd behaved as if proximity to fame granted them permission to cross boundaries that would be unacceptable in any other setting.

At the centre of this is a woman, a public figure, yes, but also an individual entitled to dignity and safety. The footage forces an uncomfortable truth into the open: women in India remain unsafe even in the most public, well-lit, supposedly “premium” spaces. If a well-known actor cannot exit a mall event without fear, what does that say about everyone else?

Predictably, the blame has been fragmented. Event managers blame crowd size. Police cite lack of permission. Social media debates whether celebrities should “expect” this. But these arguments miss the point.