KOCHI: A controversy erupted after renowned music director Ramesh Narayan allegedly snubbed actor Asif Ali at the trailer launch function of the anthology series titled Manorathangal based on M T Vasudevan Nair's nine stories.
The issue has snowballed with the music director getting criticised on social media.
In the video clip of the event that is doing the rounds on social media platforms, it can be seen that the anchor of the event, held in Kochi on Monday evening, invited Asif Ali to present a memento to Ramesh Narayan.
However, when Asif Ali approaches Ramesh Narayan with the moment, the latter ignores the former, takes the memento from him and then proceeds to call filmmaker Jayaraj. He then hands Jayaraj the momento before receiving it back from the filmmaker.
Ramesh Narayan then posed for photos with Jayaraj. In the anthology series, Jayaraj is among the nine directors, who made films based on nine short stories by MT Vasudevan Nair.
Ramesh Narayan is the music director of Jayaraj's 'Swargam Thurakkunna Samayam', one of the films in the anthology, which stars Nedumudi Venu and Indrans.
Meanwhile, as the controversy snowballed, Ramesh Narayan came out with a statement saying that he had not insulted Asif Ali. "If the public thinks that I have, I am ready to apologise. I didn't know that Asif Ali was the one going to present the memento to me. I hadn't heard the announcement. I was not in the right frame of mind since I was feeling sad that though every other director associated with the film was invited to the dais, I was not. I felt excluded," said the music director.
"I didn't know that Asif Ali had approached me to present me with the memento," he added. He said statues or mementoes don't matter to him.
"I was not standing on the dais. Hence, I could not see the person approaching me. I didn't have the intention to insult or degrade anyone. Asif Ali is one of the actors who is very dear to me. I will be calling Asif and if I find that a wrong has happened on my part I will apologise," he added. However, I feel saddened by the cyber attack unleashed on me without understanding the facts, said Ramesh Narayan.