Actor Radha Ravi, son of the late actor MR Radha, is the second person from the Tamil film industry to have been taken down by the #MeToo movement, which has seen scores of Indian women levelling allegations of sexual harrassment and abuse against Indian men across films, politics and the media.
The allegation against Radha Ravi was made by an anonymous woman, whose message was put out on Twitter by singer Chinmayee Sripada.
The alleged victim in her message said, "Looking at the Vairamuthu incident was a shocker. Because the same, EXACTLY the same happened to me with Mr Radha Ravi, when I approached him for something official. Got invited to his home/office at Alwarpet, got hugged and kissed on the face. Was told 'Finish this work nallaa and come, we'll meet again. Neeyum Nalla dhaan irukka. Don't come with your friends, come alone.' Never got that official work done though. Gave up on it. He has the same political power and other powers in the industry. Nothing can be done than exposing on social media. —Anonymously."
Singer Chinmayee got intense support from several actresses, including Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, who is known as a feminist. Varalaxmi retweeted most of Chinmayee's tweets against Vairamuthu.
The interesting part is that local media claimed that Varalaxmi had retweeted the victim's allegations against Radha Ravi as well. Varalaxmi retweeting the allegation against Radha Ravi made news as the actress is distantly related to him. Cinestaan.com, however, could not find the said retweet on Varalaxmi's Twitter account.
For those unaware of their relationship, Varalaxmi's father, the actor Sarathkumar, married Radhika Sarathkumar after divorcing Varalakshmi's mother Chaya in 2000. Radha Ravi is Radhika Sarathkumar's brother.