After a heavy backlash from all quarters over his controversial personal remarks on his colleague Nayanthara, actor Radha Ravi apologised, saying he had been misunderstood. He said he was willing to meet Nayanthara and Vignesh in person and express regret, and that he would quit the DMK if the party was being affected because of him.
Earlier, in the first formal reaction to his comments comparing the actor to a woman of easy virtue, Radha Ravi was suspended by the DMK for acting in a manner that was bringing disrepute to the party and defying party discipline.
Taapsee Pannu
Nayanthara’s fiancé and filmmaker Vignesh Shivn, who slammed the crude speech in a series of posts on his social media handle, had also requested DMK chief M.K. Stalin and Kanimozhi to take action against Radha Ravi by tagging them in a tweet. Vignesh had said, “@mkstalin sir & @KanimozhiDMK Madam, both respected leaders have voiced vociferously against Pollachi Sexual Harassment case. Please, Why don’t you take stringent action against male chauvinist, crass sexist & bully Mr. Radha Ravi? Kindly acknowledge and take action.”
Siddharth
Stalin tweeted saying the party upholds the rights of women and Ravi's views about female movie actors were unacceptable and strongly condemnable. He warned his party cadres and leaders from speaking ill of women.
Vishal, Nadigar Sangam general secretary and Tamil Film Producers Council president, currently shooting in Turkey for his upcoming film, too condemned Radha Ravi. He said that the Nadigar Sangam has sent him a letter condemning his “stupidity”. His tweet reads, “Dear #radharavi SIR. Yes as a gen secy of Nadigar Sangam I wish I had da pleasure of signing the letter of condemning u 4 yr stupidity n yr recent speech against women n particular. Its sent 2 u. grow up. call yaself Ravi fm now onwrds Coz u hv a woman s name n ya name.”
Actress Taapsee Pannu, who has shared screen space with Nayan in Arrambam, wrote, “This is disgusting beyond words. Who asked him about casting prerequisites and is he the president of character certificate association? This comes for one of the strongest actresses of the industry, I can only wonder what he might have to say about others.”
Actor Siddharth was about the only one to voice a different opinion on the subject, indirectly alluding that Nayanthara was silent during the #MeToo movement.
He tweeted, “I was shocked that my entire fraternity was either silent or cynical about the #MeToo movement; I silently rued the fact that it would take only the anger of a powerful woman to make the sleeping wake up. If you speak up only when your own are affected, it’s not called bravery.”
Vignesh Shivn was quick to react and defended Nayan by putting out a statement tagging Siddharth and writing, “One’s silence on social media does not mean that they are not supporting an issue.” He further added, “Nayanthara has always stood for the safety and welfare of women”.
