Much after actress Trisha Krishnan and director Lokesh Kanagaraj rightfully called out actor Mansoor Ali Khan's derogatory statements on rape and abuse, Khan has taken to social media to issue a lengthy clarification in Tamil, but not once does his statement seem apologetic or regretful in nature.
Translating his statement in Tamil, Khan says, "My daughter and son sent news reports of me passing statements against Trisha. This has come at the time of the release of my film and me contesting in the upcoming election supporting a political party. If you see, I had spoken highly of Trisha in the video. Like old times, we don’t get opportunities to act with heroines these days. I had let out my frustration and said those comments in a lighter vein. The video has been trimmed in such a way as to create controversies. I am not a person who gets scared of this. Trisha has been shown the trimmed version. The heroines who had acted with me are now MLAs and MPs. They have married successful businessmen. During the pooja ceremony of Leo, I told Trisha that my daughter Dilruba is her fan. I had acted in over 360 movies to get my two daughters married. I am always someone who respects my co-stars. This is an act of some people who are against me. They have shown a trimmed version to Trisha to make her angry. There are so many problems in the world. Let’s get back to work."
Not once in the entire statement does Khan seem apologetic or corrective in his stance.
Trisha and Lokesh's reaction were prompted after Khan made derogatory statements against the Ponniyin Selvan and Leo actress at a media interaction. He said, "When I heard that I was acting with Trisha, I thought there would be a bedroom scene in the film. I thought that I could carry her to the bedroom just like I did with other actresses in my earlier movies. I have done so many rape scenes in a number of movies and it's not new to me. But these guys didn't even show Trisha to me on the sets during the Kashmir schedule."
Not mincing her words, Trisha vowed to never work with the actor again in her strong-worded statement. She wrote, "A recent video has come to my notice where Mr.Mansoor Ali Khan has spoken about me in a vile and disgusting manner.I strongly condemn this and find it sexist, disrespectful, misogynistic, repulsive and in bad taste. He can keep wishing but I am grateful never to have shared screen space with someone as pathetic as him and I will make sure it never happens for the rest of my film career as well. People like him bring a bad name to mankind."
Standing up in solidarity with Trisha, Lokesh also wrote, "Disheartened and enraged to hear the misogynistic comments made by Mr.Mansoor Ali Khan, given that we all worked in the same team. Respect for women, fellow artists and professionals should be a non-negotiable in any industry and I absolutely condemn this behaviour."
The Tamil film industry is witnessing a lot of reactions at the moment with many strongly condemning Khan for his words.
