HYDERABAD: Actor Akkineni Nagarjuna on Friday revealed that he plans to file a defamation suit seeking Rs 100 crore in damages from Endowments Minister Konda Surekha for her now-retracted comments linking the divorce of his son Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu with BRS leader KT Rama Rao.
“Her (Surekha’s) outrageous comments cannot be allowed to slide. She now says she is withdrawing her remarks. She has apparently apologised to Samantha. What about my family? Not a word of apology to me and to my family!” Nagarjuna told a media outlet.
“Yes, we filed a criminal defamation case yesterday. We are in the process of filing another Rs 100-crore defamation lawsuit against her,” he said.
Surekha’s comments on Wednesday drew widespread criticism, with the Telugu film industry closing ranks and, as if in one voice, condemning the insinuations hurled by the minister. The likes of Nagarjuna, Chiranjeevi, Mahesh Babu, Jr NTR and Allu Arjun slammed the minister for her ‘insensitive’ and ‘baseless’ remarks. Opposition leaders too condemned the crass remarks, urging the minister to withdraw them.
A day after she made the rather unsavoury remarks, Surekha withdrew them. However, film producer Ram Gopal Varma was quick to point out that Surekha had said in her statement that she was doing so out of respect for Samantha.
While the minister’s statement made no mention of the Akkineni family, it hinted that the remarks were made during a particularly emotive moment and in response to KT Rama Rao describing her emotions as “drama”.
Nagarjuna had filed the defamation case in the Nampally Civil Court seeking action against the minister under Section 356 (defamation) of the BNS.
His petition said, “... shocked to see the clips of the defamatory statement being widely published and circulated on various social media platforms. The statement [by Surekha] falsely claims and misleads the public into believing that the cause of the divorce between Naga Chaitanya and Samantha was linked to a purported illicit demand made by Rama Rao. Specifically, the accused insinuated, in a derogatory manner, that Rama Rao requested a meeting with Samantha for inappropriate purposes, and further implied that I supported these alleged interests of Rama Rao in exchange for not demolishing N-Convention Centre, owned by my family. It is alleged that my family and I pressured Samantha to comply, which ultimately led to the divorce.”
It must be noted that Rama Rao had sent a notice to the minister on Wednesday, demanding that she withdraw her comments within 24 hours or face legal action.