Telugu star Nandamuri Balakrishna found himself at the receiving end of severe backlash after a video of him pushing Gangs Of Godavari actress Anjali on stage surfaced on the internet. Netizens slammed the actor for misbehaving with the actress and also expressed their shock over the fact that no one on stage or in the audience called out his behaviour.
A video of the incident has now gone viral on the internet in which Balakrishna can be seen getting on stage to give a speech as he was invited as the chief guest at the pre-release event of Gangs of Godavari. As the entire team of the film gathered on the stage, the veteran actor was seen telling something to Anjali, which the actress failed to hear.
It was then that Balakrishna pushed her, which almost made her fall, but the actress regained her balance. Not just that, but she was also seen laughing aloud, but her co-star Neha looked visibly shocked.
Netizens slammed the actor for 'disrespecting' women and also questioned the silence of the others present around. Several celebs too commented on the video. Filmmaker Hansal Mehta asked, "Who is this scumbag?", while actor Siddharth wrote, "Appalling behaviour by Balakrishna and an understandable reaction by the junior artist who laughed it off, but the most horrifying part of this video is the crowd’s reaction to a blatant act of assault, cheering and hooting in approval."
"Crowd is cheering, the public is toxic we can observe that in their movies too," a user wrote, while another stated, "This is so humiliating what an arrogant person he is."
Neither Balakrishna nor Anjali have issued an official statement on the incident yet.
Nandamuri Balakrishna is the sixth son of legendary actor and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh NT Rama Rao. He is also an elected member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Hindupuram constituency.
As for Anjali, the actress marked her Tollywood debut in 2006 with the film Photo, and has so far worked in over 50 films, most of them in Tamil and Telugu.
