I HATE MICHAEL After watching MICHAEL film , my memory went back to that horrible day June 25 th , 2009 when I slept late with the television still murmuring like a ghost in the darkness of my room , and as I groggily woke up in the morning and my eyes went to the screen to see those terrible white letters against black: “Michael Jackson is Dead.” For several long seconds,this must be a nightmare, I thought. Why the hell would I even dream something so horrible? But the banner on the tv stayed and the news ticker kept crawling. I reached out to the remote and started switching channels and all anchors were speaking with the same solemn gravity , and I finally realised the impossible had happened. Back in my engineering college days in Vijayawada, on January 2nd 1984 , a friend dragged me into a dingy video parlour, insisting I had to see something. The lights got switched off, and then THRILLER hit me like a punch in the gut It was not just a song or a dance. It was an invasion. My eyes, conditioned by a lifetime of mediocrity were violently pried open. The production, the choreography, the seamless ecstasy blended into one single divine entity .. it was spectacle on a level I had never imagined possible and at the centre of that storm was him. MICHAEL JACKSON He didn’t move like a human being. He glided, he exploded , he floated, he commanded the screen like a supernatural entity who just entered a human body for a few minutes of absolute dominance. I walked out of that parlour in a complete daze, my heart racing, my mind reeling. This cannot be a real person. He has to be GOD or the least a fantasy sculpted by the gods to bless us mortals on Earth. Every subsequent music video of his only raised the bar higher. Beat It. Billie Jean. Smooth Criminal. Black or White. Remember the Time. Bad to name a few Each one was a brand New Testament and In every song picturisation discussion I’ve had in my career whether with my team or other directors we always circled back to his videos His work became an unreachable benchmark, a constant source of both inspiration and humility. And yes like I said , It was never just the dance. never just the voice. It was always the aura. That man was like a gravitational force not subject to control The scandals? The controversies? They never bothered me. They were background noise. What he gave my senses and my soul far outweighed anything a human court or a tabloid magazine could ever throw at him. To me, he was either God or God’s special creation and that is exactly why I hate him. I hate Michael Jackson for dying. I hate him for proving that even he was human I hate that he too needed oxygen and blood like the rest of us. I hate that his heart could stop beating too. I hate that I lived long enough to see those words on CNN: “Michael Jackson’s body sent to Mortuary.” He back stabbed me. He betrayed my fantasy. He left heaven and became mortal. I hate you, Michael, for turning my dream into a nightmare And i love you. I love you more than I can express in words Wherever you are now, in whatever dimension, I am sure you are moonwalking across galaxies, creating space storms, with a brilliance which even the stars cannot contain. And I will carry that daze you gave me in that Vijayawada video parlour till i die 🙏🙏🙏