DMK Suspends Actor And Party Campaigner Radha Ravi For His Sexist Innuendoes On Actress Nayantara

A day after his distatestful remarks at the trailer launch of Nayantara's latest film , the DMK acted swiftly to ‘suspend’ actor and its ace campaigner Radha Ravi from the party.

A statement issued by DMK General Secretary K Anbazhagan on Sunday (Mar 24) said that the actor was being suspended from primary membership of the party.

The acerbic tongued Radha Ravi is no stranger to controversies and is notorious for his speeches laced with venom and sarcasm. He is known to invariably resort to sexists innuendo and double entendres. He is a much sought after campaigner as his vituperative tirade is lapped up by the party cadres.

Speaking at the trailer launch of Nayantara 's upcoming Tamil film "Kolayuthir Kaalam" in Chennai on Saturday (Mar 23) , Radha Ravi said to a cheering audience "Nayanthara has acted as ghost and as goddess Sita as well. Earlier, K.R. Vijaya was the most popular choice to play the role of goddess. Today, anyone can be cast to play a goddess. They can cast someone who you want to pray to when you look at them, they can also cast someone you want to call towards you when you see them,"

Not done with his derogatory reference to Nayantara, Radha Ravi made disgusting remarks on Pollachi sexual assault and extortion that has rocked Tamil Nadu in the recent weeks.

The popular actor said, "Nowadays, people are using mobile phones to shoot anything anywhere. We don't need a huge camera, it's enough if we have mobile phones. I heard someone got raped in Pollachi and the leaked video was doing the rounds on social media. Many are requesting people not to see it. But, what else would people watch? For example, out of 110 passengers, at least 100 people would have watched the leaked video. Only the driver and conductor wouldn't have seen it."

He even went ahead and compared the Pollachi sexual assault issue to a big-budget film. "These days, people do not understand the difference between a big film and small film. A small film is where one guy rapes another girl. A big film is where 40 women are raped like the Pollachi issue. This is the difference," he said and gave away a wicked smile.”

Radha Ravi is the son of yesteryear actor M.R Radha. Radha Ravi was known for this fiery, rabble-rousing speeches aimed at advancing the ideas of E.V. Ramasamy, founder of the Dravidian movement.

Unlike this father who never a card-holding member of any party, Radha Ravi has been in active politics for many years now. After a bitter fallout with late DMK chief Karunanidhi, Radha Ravi switched allegiance to AIADMK. He was a member of legislative assembly from Saidapet assembly segment in the city. He was elected from the seat in a by-election in 2002 but he was not re-nominated in the 2006 election.

After he was refused renomination, he kept aloof from active politics but rejoined the party in 2010.

In early 2017, Radha Ravi rejoined the DMK claiming that there was no leader other than M.K. Stalin who could rule the State and it was the only political party that enjoys the confidence of the people.