Actor Anjali backs actor-politician Nandamuri Balakrishna after he pushes her on stage

Tamil-Telugu actor Anjali backed actor-politician Nandamuri Balakrishna on her X (formerly known as Twitter) page.

This comes a day after a viral video of Balakrishna aka Balayya pushing her on stage at the ‘Gangs of Godavari’ event. Soon after the video went viral, Balayya was criticised and called ‘rude’ and ‘disrespectful’ by celebrities and users. Director Hansal Mehta called him a ‘scumbag’.

Now, sharing a video from the ‘Gangs of Godavari’ event, Anjali thanked him for making it to the show. Despite receiving overwhelming support from celebrities and internet users, Anjali’s latest post about Balayya has surprised many.

Her post read, “I want to thank Balakrishna Garu for gracing the Gangs of Godavari pre-release event with his presence. I would like to express that Balakrishna garu and I have always maintained mutual respect for eachother and We share a great friendship from a long time. It was wonderful to share the stage with him again (sic).”

The video is a montage of Anjali’s interaction with Balayya from the event, including the said incident.

The internet tore Balakrishna apart, calling him out for his insensitive behaviour. Meanwhile, there were comments asking why Anjali was laughing.

Playback singer and voice artist Chinmayi Sripaada called out ‘moral policing’ of women as she supported Anjali. Her post read, “One of the biggest problems that I notice from people sharing this is ‘Look at her laughing. She should have…’ It is NOT possible to respond according to your spectator response as you watch this on your device. This most moral policing, holier than thou – pure as driven snow – Harishchandra /Sri Ramachandramoorthy or their relative incarnates will fail to understand (sic).”

‘Gangs of Godavari’ actor Vishwak Sen and producer Naga Vamsi also defended Balakrishna’s actions and said that the incident had been blown out of proportion.

In the past, Nandamuri Balakrishna was criticised for his behaviour towards fellow actors, fans and his assistants.