JOIN US#MeToo: Chethan says people are trying to deviate issue
Kannada actor Chethan on Tuesday hit back at the people who passed allegations against him and said that they are deliberately trying to divert the issue from #MeToo.
The actor, who was not available for the reaction for the allegations on him Monday reached out DH on Tuesday and came down heavily on the people who are deviating the issue.
Reacting to the allegations made by producer-turned-distributor Prashanth Sambaragi, Chethan said, “First of all I don’t know who Mr Prashanth Sambaragi is. I have never heard the name in my career. I have no sense of revenge on Arjun Sarja, it’s the pure professional relationship that I maintained with him. I have proof where Arjun had promised to work with me in the future and never asked back the advance money. These are all baseless allegations.”
Chethan was targeted by many film fraternities on Monday for taking revenge on Arjun for dropping him from bilingual movie Premabaraha. However, he cleared that people are just trying to deviate the issue from the main focus of #MeToo.
“I am just supporting the victim here. There is no personal gain or loss for me from this. With FIRE, an NGO working for the welfare of the people of film industry, I am giving moral and legal support to the #MeToo victims. All of a sudden I was targeted, this is just intended to deviate the issue,” Chethan told DH.
He added, “The issue has also taken an ugly political turn between left and right. I don’t understand what do the people get by doing this cheap gimmicks. They say Arjun Sarja supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi for which I am taking on him. This is absolutely rubbish. Honestly speaking, I have never come across the political face of Arjun even now. So this issue is purely related to women in industry.”
Chethan has extended his support to actor Sruthi Hariharan, who levelled allegations against Arjun Sarja of experiencing sexually explicit behaviour from him during the shoot of movie Vismaya.