Actress Kasthuri produced in court, lodged in jail

PTI, Nov 17, 2024, 5:09 PM IST

Actress Kasthuri (X / video screengrab)

Chennai: Actress Kasthuri, who made a remark on the Telugu-speaking people of Tamil Nadu that stoked a controversy, was produced before a court here on Sunday, which remanded her to judicial custody.

She was arrested from Hyderabad on November 16 by a Chennai police team after the Madras High Court Madurai bench days ago rejected her anticipatory bail petition.

While the actress, soon after the row, withdrew her remarks and also apologised, complaints were filed, in the meanwhile, against her with police.

A Chennai police team traced her to a film producer’s house in Hyderabad and effected the arrest. She was brought to Chennai and produced before a magistrate court at Egmore here which remanded her to judicial custody till November 29. Later, she was lodged in the Puzhal central prison.

Tamil nationalist, Naam Tamizhar Katchi chief Seeman wondered the necessity to arrest and imprison her even after she apologised.

The crux of her recent allegation that triggered a row was that some Telugu speaking people, who had come to the state centuries ago to serve the then rulers, were now claiming to be Tamils.

According to the actress, such people, who subscribe to a particular political ideology, though claim themselves to be Tamils despite their Telugu origin, do not consider Tamil Brahmins as Tamils. That was the reason why they chose the identity of ‘Dravidian’ and could not choose ‘Tamil,’ for their ideology.

The actress levelled that allegation while speaking in support of Brahmins at a protest here on November 3.

She sought to pick holes in the Aryan invasion theory and the claim that Tamil Brahmins were Aryans, a line often taken in Tamil Nadu by those who subscribe to the Dravidian ideology.

The actress, following the controversy, asserted that she only referred to those who bat for the “Dravidian ideology, who say that Tamils (Tamil Brahmins) are not Tamils.” Also, she had repeatedly claimed that she did not make any derogatory comment against the Telugu speaking people.