New Delhi: Nanadmuri Balakrishna is one actor-politican who loves to court controversy. The Telugu superstar's video of shoving actor Anjali on stage for not moving away quickly at a promotional event for a film has gone viral.
Soon after the video began doing the rounds on social media platforms like Reddit and X, several netizens trolled Balakrishna and called him a 'serial offender'. On numerous occasions in the past, the actor-politican has shown problematic behaviour and got away with it.
Filmmaker Hansal Mehta also called him a 'scumbag' for his behaviour.
Previous incidents involving Nandamuri Balakrishna’s problematic behaviour.
When Radhika Apte took an indirect dig at Balakrishna Nandamuri
In BFFs with Vogue, Radhika Apte had opened up about her experience of working with a 'powerful south actor without taking names. Talking to show host Neha Dhupia, Apte had shared how she was made to feel uncomfortable on these two Telugu films she did( both with Balakrishna). Radhika even claimed that she does not want to generalise, because she was never uncomfortable wokring woth Tamil superstar Rajinikanth.
“I did south Indian films, they pay you well and you bloody deserve it. I wouldn’t generalise it, but in the projects I worked on, there was (no gender equality). These men are extremely powerful and you’re called two hours before, made to wait, treated differently.” Apte told Dhupia.
“My first day in that Telugu film, I am lying because I’m not well (her character). The actor walks in; I don’t even know him, he starts tickling my feet. He is a big actor. I got up and snapped at him in front of everybody; I said don’t ever do that to me. He didn’t expect that, but he didn’t touch me after that. This never happened to me on Rajinikanth’s film. It’s particularly the two Telugu films I did,” she added.
In 2004, a shooting case at his residence
This one time in 2004, Balakrishna was involved in a shooting incident at his residence, where he is alleged to have shot at two film producers: Bellamkonda Suresh and his associate, Satyanarayana Chowdhary. Both wounded producers were later admitted to Apollo Hospital. The two victims who had earlier given statements against Nandamuri later retracted. Despite massive uproar, Nandamuri was acquitted due to lack of evidence.
Abusing an assistant
A vidoe of Balakrishna from the sets of his film 'Jai Simha' in 2018 went viral. In the video, Nanadamuri is seen abusing an assistant. He hits the assistant on the head and asks him to clean or tie his shoes. He continues talking to the crew as the assistant cleans his boots, unaware that they are being recorded.
However, with fans enabling and even to some extent cheering for this behavious, Balakrishna pnce again got away with it without any fallout.
Vulgar comments
At an event in 2016, Balakirshna Nandamuri made misogynistic comments about the kind of roles, his fans allegedly wanted him to play. He said, "I can only do certain kinds of roles due to my fans. Will they agree if I woo girls or just eve-tease? They won’t accept. I have to either kiss her or make her pregnant in the least. I have to commit to it.”
Later Telugu Desam Party(TDP), that he is a part of issued a statement on his behalf that read, "“Balakrishna regrets over his remarks and apologises if they hurt the feelings of any section. He made those remarks as part of fun (during the movie function) and did not aim at anyone. He also said that he inherited the culture of respecting women from his father NT Rama Rao.”
When his security guard was found dead
At one time, Nandamuri Balakrishna's security guard was found murdered on the lawns of his home. The official report suggestes that the guard was killed while fighting off two robbers. There was no follow up about this case as well.
When Nandamuri Balakrishna slapped fans
Only recently, it was reported that the megastar slapped a fan for wanting to take a selfie with him. This is not the first time it happened, Nandamuri has been involved in such physical altercations, including slapping fans durng public events and film shoots.
When Balakrishna called a nurse 'hot'
The Telugu Desam Party( TDP) leader on his talk show 'Unstoppable', which streams on Aha, once said, "I was told not to reveal that it was an accident, and instead say that I slipped and fell. When they took me to the hospital, that nurse, danemma) an abusive Telugu word that literally translates to 'her mother'), she was very hot. She cleaned around my nose and asked me what happened. I said it was an accident, and she yelled at me to get out." Again, Ballaya faced a lot of backlas for his comment.
About Nandamuri Balakrishna
Nandamuri Balakrishna is the sixth son of Telugu actor and three-time Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh NT Rama Rao and his wife Basavatarakam. Balakrishna is also an elected member, from Hindupuram constituency, of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly since 2014.
Known for his dancing skills, Balakrishna has been a part of more than a hundred feature films and has left a mark with biographical, historical and hagiographical films.