When Rajinikanth felt bad for SRH owner Kavya Maran after watching her dejected expressions on TV

South superstar Rajinikanth is currently in the news for his latest movie “Jailer”, produced by Kalanithi Maran of Sun Pictures, who is also the owner of the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Despite picking some star players over the years, SRH have failed to make an impact in the T20 league in recent times.

SRH debuted in the IPL in 2013, won the championship in 2016 and finished runners-up in 2018. However, they have produced disastrous results over the last three seasons. Hyderabad finished eighth out of eight teams in 2021, eighth out of 10 teams in 2022 and last in the 10-team competition earlier this year.

Speaking at the audio launch of Jailer a couple of week back, Rajinikanth shared his thoughts on SRH’s struggles in the IPL and said that he felt bad watching Kavya Maran’s (CEO and owner of Hyderabad franchise) dejected expressions on television.

Rajinikanth was quoted as saying in media reports:

"Kalanithi Maran should put good players in SunRisers Hyderabad team. I feel bad seeing Kavya like that on TV during the IPL.”

Images of Kavya following SRH matches from the stands often go viral during the IPL.

Speaking of Jailer, the film directed by Nelson hit the theaters on August 10. Apart from Rajinikanth, the movie also stars Vinayakan, Ramya Krishnan, Vasanth Ravi apart make cameo appearances from Mohanlal, Jackie Shroff, Shiva Rajkumar and Tamannaah Bhatia.

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How SRH fared in IPL 2023

SunRisers Hyderabad made a number of chances to their personnel ahead of IPL 2023. They appointed Brian Lara as head coach, replacing Tom Moody.

SRH also named Aiden Markram as their new captain for the 2023 season after former skipper Kane Williamson was released following a poor IPL 2022.

Despite the changes, there was not any improvement in SRH’s fortunes. If anything, things only got worse. They won only four of their 14 matches to finish last in the IPL 2023 points table. They won two of their first four games, but were handed defeats in eight of their last 10 matches.

Recently, the SRH franchise named Kiwi legend Daniel Vettori as their new head coach, replacing Lara.