Actress Sri Reddy from Tollywood hit the headlines after she made scathing remarks on her social media handles about T’town and K’town personalities, charging them with sexual exploitation. A post in which she accuses actor turned full time politician Udhayanidhi Stalin, son of DMK honcho Stalin, of cheating her after spending time with her at a star hotel in Hyderabad went viral on Friday. At an urgently convened press conference in the city, Sri Reddy clarified that it was a fake account and she did not know nor had she ever seen Udhayanidhi.
“I have nothing to do with Udhayanidhi Stalin sir and this particular post. There are umpteen number of fake accounts in my name and this fake news has appeared in one such profile. My Facebook account is verified and is with a blue tick mark. Only anything appearing on it is official. Someone who wants to create mischief has done this. In fact, I have given complaint in cybercrime cell in Hyderabad about this, but they don’t care much for it,” she said,
Ask her if someone had threatened her and she says, “Not at all! I have a lot of respect for late Kalaignar Karunanidhi and have heard of his immense contribution to films as a well as politics. Also, I respect Stalin sir. With elections around the corner, it is evident some miscreants wants to tarnish Udhayanidhi sir’s name. And, I thought it is my duty to clarify at this point of time.”
Accepted that she has made mistakes in the past with her activities, Sri Reddy asserted that her starting the #MeToo movement much ahead of anyone else was the right thing to do. “Not only me, several heroines face this problem, but they wouldn’t come out with it. In the film industry, many girls are being affected and I wanted to bring out that truth. After me Chinmayee, Tanusree Dutta, Kannada and Malayalam industries opened up about the issue. At least, the awareness was created.”
So, can we take this as a step towards joining DMK party and she said, “No! One thing for sure that I am foraying into politics. But I can’t reveal whether it is with a local or national political party. The announcement will come soon from the party chiefs. But definitely not in Andhra.”
The actress who has settled bag and baggage in Chennai says, “None of my co-stars and not even my family supported me when I was in a crisis. It was only Tamil Nadu people who gave me support and I relocated to Chennai once for all. I feel women are respected more here and I feel safe also. After all, it was state which was governed by the Iron Lady called J.Jayalaithaa amma, who is my all-time inspiration and role model.”
Reacting to a query on her favourites in Tamil she said, “I am a fan of Ajith garu and know of Rajini films little bit. I have no idea about Vijay films.”
Sri says she has three projects in Tamil including Reddy Diary (which is not her own story as rumoured) where she plays a CBI officer, a Lawrence film and one more big movie. In Telugu she claims that she is doing a special song in a film, a flick called Climax and talks are on with Ram Gopal Varma for a movie.
