New Delhi: Kerala college student, who misbehaved with National Award-winning actress Aparna Balamurali during her campus visit to promote her upcoming film ‘Thankam’, has been suspended for a week on Friday.
The suspension came after the Ernakulam Law College Union’s apology to the actress. In a social media post, the Union said it is "deeply sorry" for the incident which has hurt the actress, saying it is being viewed as a very "grave" issue.
During the promotional event earlier this week, the second-year student came on stage and presented flowers to the actress and then asked her for a photograph and tried putting his arm around her for the picture. Aparna immediately moved away and asked him to step away.
The student later apologised for his behaviour and tried shaking hands with Aparna, she accepted the apology by nodding her head but refused to shake hands with the student.
The video of this incident went viral with people criticising the action and also questioning the college administration for not stepping in.
A user commented, “One should not cross their limits, surprisingly none of the film personalities didn't come to her rescue and condemned the incident. Very unfortunate.”
“There are social conventions to be observed in public so that incidents like this do not happen. It's happening much too often all over the country. Our education authorities please take note,” wrote another user.
Aparna also reacted to the incident in a reply to writer Sowmya Radha Vidyadhar Facebook post about the incident.
Sowmya Radha wrote on Facebook, “Touching a woman’s body without her permission. Expensive. Trying to touch her again in the name of an apology hand shake. Priceless (sic).” Aparna commented to the post, “The best part- ‘Law college’ I was speechless! (sic)”
The 27-year-old actress won the National award for her role in the Tamil film "Soorarai Pottru". Aparna was last seen in Malayalam film Kappa, alongside Prithviraj.