Actress Rakul Preet Singh breaks silence on Konda Surekha's comments

Hyderabad: Actress Rakul Preet Singh has spoken out against derogatory comments made by Telangana Minister for Forest and Environment Konda Surekha.

In her response, Rakul took to 'X' (formerly Twitter), stating, "The Telugu Film Industry is known worldwide for its creativity and professionalism. I've had a great journey in this beautiful industry and am still very much connected. It pains me to hear such baseless and vicious rumours being spread about the women of this fraternity. What's more disheartening is that this is being done by another woman who is supposedly in a very responsible position."

She continued, "For the sake of dignity, we choose to remain silent, but it is misconstrued as our weakness. I am absolutely apolitical and have nothing to do with any person or political party whatsoever. I urge that my name not be used in a malicious way to gain political mileage. Artists and creative personalities should be kept out of political slugfests, and their names should not be linked with fictitious stories for the sake of headlines."

Actor Mahesh Babu also expressed his dismay at Surekha's remarks, stating, "I am extremely pained by the comments made by Minister Konda Surekha on fellow members of our film fraternity. As a father of a daughter, as a husband to a wife, and as a son to a mother, I am deeply anguished by the unacceptable remarks and language used by a woman minister against another woman. Freedom of speech can be exercised as long as it does not hurt others' sentiments.”

Mahesh Babu strongly condemned the baseless comments made. He requested that those in the public domain refrain from making the film fraternity a soft target. He further highlighted that the women of our country and our film fraternity should be treated with the utmost respect and dignity.