CHENNAI: Irked by the continuing satire over a phrase identified with her, noted actor-director Lakshmi Ramakrishnan lodged a complaint with the city police on Friday seeking action against a private television channel for airing a promo, which she alleged was defamatory in nature.
Talking to Express, the director said she had hosted a reality show titled Solvathellam Unmai on Zee Tamizh channel recently. During one of the episodes, she had used the phrase, Ennama Ippadi Panreengale Ma (Why are you doing like this?) to express her helplessness. However, her statement, made in exasperation, was made fun of in another game show titled Athu Ithu Ethu which was aired on Vijay TV. The satirical version went viral and has since been used often to take digs at her, she charged. “Now, Vijay TV has put out a promo for version 2 of #EnnamaIppadiPanreengaleMa! It shows that this swipe at me is likely to be featured in one of the segments of the programme Athu Ithu Yethu. I want this segment that features this satire to be stopped from being aired,” she said.
The filmmaker approaching the police comes after a war of tweets between her and the TV channel. Lakshmi said Police Commissioner S George assured her that he would have a word with Vijay TV in this regard. “Is it not a basic etiquette to drop such content when I have already told them that I am hurt. I have mailed to the management of the channel, making it clear that the particular content was in bad taste,” she said.
“I tolerated it once. But you can’t keep doing it over and over again. The director of the programme and the channel can let it slip through once, but it shouldn’t recur,” she argued. Lakshmi said she was considering the possibility of filing a defamation suit against the channel if they went ahead with the second installment of what they claimed to be another satire on her and the show. Officials of the channel could not be reached for their comment.