Actor turned minister Chalapathi says women useful in bed

Actor Chalapathi Rao's comments on women at Rarandoi Veduka Chudham audio launch have received flak from many including several celebrities. 

After saying women are useful only in bed, Chalapathi Rao issued a video. Nagarjuna, Naga Chaitanya, Rakul Preet condemn the statement. The lead actor, played by Naga Chaitanya, has a dialogue in the film, which says 'Ammayilu manasanthiki hanikaram' (women are injurious to mental peace). When a female anchor asked Chalapathi to react on the dialogue, he said “Ammayilu hanikaram kadu kani pakkaloki panikostaru (women are not harmful, but they are useful in bed).” Shockingly, a lot of actors, including Naga Chaitanya and Rakul Preet, burst out into laughter.

 

 

If you see the video carefully you will see senior actors with such a poor mindset. It got even worse when people laughed at his statement. Tollywood young star, Naga Chaitanya was laughing at his comment while Rakul Preet looked unsure of how to react. The male host who was on the stage, too, burst out laughing and said "super answer sir" while the female anchor went back on stage clearly uncomfortable with the comment.

 

Post the event many actors including Nagarjuna Akkineni, who is bankrolling the film tweets, "I always respect women personally and in my films/I definitely do not agree wt Chalapati rao's derogatory comments/dinosaurs do not exist!!"(SIC)

 

 

The hero of the film Naga Chaitanya also tweets, "Respecting women is a way of life for me.The reactions shown on TV weren't for the statement made.Do I agree with it ?Absolutely NOT !"

 

 

Rakul, who plays the female lead in the film, also condemned Chalapathi’s remarks. “Apologies 4 a late response 2 #ChalapathiRao comments!wish I understood d exact meanin of it then.I condemn it n my off stmnt wil b out soon,” she tweeted.

 

 

Chalapati, however, issued a statement accusing the media of blowing his remarks out of context.  “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. If I had hurt your feelings, I am sorry. But, I was angry when they asked me if ‘girls are harmful’? Do we sleep with snakes? No. That’s why I said woman are harmless and that’s why we sleep with them. I don’t even understand what’s wrong in that. Some channel, that does not know Telugu, reported it and others are spreading it like cancer. I will never insult a woman. I will always treat women with respect like mothers and sisters,”

 

 

Later, the remarks received widespread criticism in the media and were trolled on social media. Following the event, Chalapathi Rao clarified on his comment and blamed media for making a huge controversy out of a generic statement. Chalapathi said that he respects women a lot and that he has never misbehaved with or said crude things about any woman in the five decades of his film career. 

"A question like 'Are women injurious to health?' shouldn't have been asked in the first place. I got angry, and I tried to give an honest answer that they aren't injurious to any man. In fact, there is a woman behind the success of every man. I am surprised that no man or even woman condemned the satiric question,' said the senior actor. "In the Telugu language, there is double meaning for every word, and some enthusiastic media people propagated the double meaning of what I have said and created this controversy. I am not scared of them, but still, if women feel that I had disrespected them, I seek an apology from them all,' added Rao. 

Rarandoi Veduka Chudham is set to hit the screens this Friday.