Must kiss or get them pregnant': Actor Balakrishna's remarks spark row

Hyderabad: The Telangana Advocates joint action committee on Monday approached the police against Tollywood actor and TD MLA N. Balakrishna over his remarks on women during a film function last week.

Advocate Ravi Kumar said in the complaint to the Saroornagar police that Balakrishna’s comments were provocative and would encourage attacks on women. Being a celebrity, he was making provocative remarks instead of empowering women, the complaint said.

Balakrishna, during the audio launch of the Nara Rohith-starrer Savitri, on March 4 had said, “I have always tried to do different roles. If I simply run behind the actresses, my fans will be disappointed. They like it when I either kiss the girl or make her pregnant.”

Regarding his co-stars, he had said, “I too act naughty with the actresses... I pinch them sometimes.” Following an uproar, he apologised for his comments saying that they were not meant to hurt anybody and that he was narrating sequences from his previous movies.

I respect all women, says Balayya
Balakrishna said he treated every woman as a family member, and invoked his father, former chief minister and patriarch N.T. Rama Rao.

“I have utmost respect towards women. The comments which I made were not to target anyone. Recollecting my previous movies, I made the comments. I extend my greetings to all women from the Telugu states and across the country on Women’s Day,” he said in an official release.

“ We have forwarded the complaint for legal opinion. We will proceed based on that,,” said Saroornagar police inspector S. Lingaiah.