The Xiaomi Mi Max phablet’s India launch event turned into chaos yesterday when some of the brand’s fans started disrupting the occasion with protests. The situation escalated to the point where the police had to be called in to handle the crowd.
To recall, the company had invited fans to register themselves for the Xiaomi Mi Max launch event which took place at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi. The chosen few who got tickets for the occasion were supposed to be awarded with special goodie bags.
As it turns out, the launch didn’t proceed as smoothly as Xiaomi had hoped it would. A group of disgruntled fans at the event began chanting ‘Xiaomi hai hai’ and other slurs against the firm and its personnel before the occasion even began.
Xiaomi India head Manu Jain apparently tried to calm the mob down and asked them what the issue was. According to Gadgets 360, the fans were angry because their friends couldn’t gain entry and they further didn’t get the Xiaomi t-shirt the rest of the attendees got.
Jain supposedly apologized to the irate crowd, explaining that Xiaomi had underestimated the number of people who would come for the event. He then tried to pacify the angry fans by assuring them that they would receive all the freebies eventually at a later stage. This was enough for some of them to stand down, but didn’t satisfy a number of others.
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It was at this point that the Delhi Police stepped in, requesting everyone to calm down and quieting the rebellious section of the crowd. The drama didn’t stop there though, as Lead Product Manager for Xiaomi India Jai Mani then took to the stage to announce his mobile number and asked any disgruntled fan to contact him personally.
A Xiaomi spokesperson later said that it had extended the invite for the Mi Max event to Mi Fans while keeping the venue capacity and expected turnout in mind. It plans to learn from the experience and make sure it doesn’t happen again.