Nayanthara, Vignesh tender apologies to Balaji devotees

Nellore: Newly-wed couple, South Indian actress Nayanthara and filmmaker Vignesh Shivan, apologised to the devotees of Lord Venkateswara for wearing footwear in the holy shrine in Tirumala on Friday.

It may be recalled that Nayanathara and Vignesh Shivan visited Tirumala on Friday after their wedding held at Mahabalipuram on Thursday to participate in Kalyanam ritual at the holy shrine.

Nayanathara was found wearing footwear during a photo shoot outside the temple and this created a furore among devotees of the Lord after the media highlighted the incident. Against this backdrop, Vignesh Shivan expressed deep regret in a letter for hurting the sentiments of devotees.

In his letter, Shivan said, “We mean no disrespect to the Lord whom we love. We have been to Tirumala almost five times in the past 30 days trying to organise our wedding in the temple town but we had to do it in Chennai due to logistical reasons.”

To stress that they are ardent devotees of the Lord, Shivan said they had headed to Tirupati directly from the wedding venue without going home, to watch the Kalyanam of the Lord and receive his blessings.

“We had a wonderful darshan and wanted to click a picture outside the temple to have this day in our memory and to feel like the wedding got completed here as per our wish bud due to crowd and chaos, we had to exit the premises and re-enter at a time when there was a lesser commotion. In a hurry for a quick picture, we did not realise we had our footwear on. We are a couple who goes to temples regularly and have immense faith in God,” he said.

“We sincerely apologise to those whom we could have offended and we mean no disrespect to the Lord. We are grateful for the love and wishes we have received from everyone on our special day,” Vignesh Shivan said.