South Indian Artistes' Association demands action against anchors for mocking Suriya

The South Indian Artistes' Association (SIAA), also known as the Nadigar Sangam, has sent a letter to the Sun TV group, demanding action against the two anchors, who allegedly passed insensitive remarks against actor Suriya in an entertainment show. 

The anchors' comments on the actor's height have drawn widespread condemnation from various quarters and had over a thousand Suriya fans staging a protest outside the channel's office. 

The letter, a copy of which is available with Cinestaan.com, has been sent to S Kannan, the chief technical officer of Sun TV Network.

In the letter, the general secretary of the SIAA and actor, Vishal wrote, "Recently, in one of Sun Music Channel's programmes, the show hosts, two young girls, literally mocked and trolled the physical appearance of one of our respected senior members, Mr Suriya, under the pretext of a film news chat. It is a real cause of concern and shock to witness such indecent and derogatory comments in a channel's programme about an individual. The fact that a movie star may be in the public eye does not warrant such pejorative discussion in a public medium such as yours."

The actor further stated that such 'defaming and disparaging content' would not be tolerated and an immediate response and corrective action was expected from the Sun TV network.

"We would like to highlight that an actor, like every other citizen, has the right to privacy, personal space, basic respect, decency and equal protection under law. Sun Network should not have permitted the telecast of such defaming and disparaging content. Being our long standing partner in the media space, we welcome any constructive and decent criticism of our work from Sun Network. However, we will not tolerate or excuse such insensitive talk shows that are aimed at hurting one of our senior members and respected actor. We demand immediate and stern action against the show hosts, who exhibited such indecency and an assurance that such chat shows in bad taste would not be telecast in your network channels," the letter read.