Arshad Warsi, in his recent appearance on Unfiltered with Samdish, stirred controversy by criticizing Prabhas’ portrayal of Bhairava in the Nag Ashwin directorial Kalki 2898 AD, said, ““Prabhas, I am really sad, why was he… he was like a joker. Why? I want to see a Mad Max. I want to see Mel Gibson over there. Tumne usko kya bana dia yaar. Kyu karte ho aisa? Mujhe nahin samajh mein aata (What have you made of it? Why do they do such things? I never understand),” 

Many cinephiles, noted figures and fans of the actor Prabhas gave a strong reaction to the opinion. Adding to the discourse, actor Sudheer Babu, Mahesh Babu’s brother-in-law, took to X (formerly Twitter) to add his reaction. He wrote, “It's okay to criticise constructively but it's never okay to bad-mouth. Never expected the absence of professionalism from Arshad Warsi. Prabhas's stature is too big for comments coming from small minds.”

People on the internet are divided on the issue, and Arshad Warsi has yet to respond to the reactions. On the work front, Sudheer Babu recently launched the first look of his upcoming Hindi-Telugu bilingual, Jatadhara, by debut director Venkat Kalyan.