Kochi: Actor Sreenath Bhasi has been arrested by Maradu police in connection with the case where he allegedly hurled cuss words at a female anchor of an entertainment portal during the promotion of his recently released film 'Chattambi.'
He was arrested after being summoned by the police for inquiry.
Though he was asked to appear before the police on Monday morning, he had requested to postpone it to the end of the day.
The police have asked to submit a video clip of the interview to ascertain what pushed Bhasi to act the way he did.
Another clip of an interview the actor gave to a radio station, in which Bhasi can be seen hurling abuses at the anchor without any provocation, had also gone viral on social media. Police have availed this clip as well and would be interrogating him in the context of both these incidents.
The incident
During Chattambi's promotion interview, the anchor of an online entertainment portal asked Bhasi to rate his co-actors on the basis of their rowdiness.
Though Bhasi attempted to deflect these questions at first, the interviewer's alleged insistence did not sit well with the actor, who could be seen asking on camera if he could leave.
Soon after that, Bhasi was seen telling the anchor to refrain from asking him any more "silly" questions. He then proceeded to ask the crew to stop filming.
According to the entertainment crew's version of the incident, Bhasi verbally abused the crew once the camera was turned off.
In a video posted on the channel, the crew allege that Bhasi used swear words that were deeply insulting to women. Bhasi was interviewed by two female anchors.
"Because we are an online channel, we deviate from the usual hard news and instead focus on funny questions to spread the word about the movie. In fact, when movie promotion teams approach us, they do prefer these kinds of funny questions. Our videos are thus livelier than other promotional videos," a crew member of the YouTube channel said.
"However, it is true that Bhasi did not find these questions befitting his status. But given how he has made a name for himself within a short span, he must be well aware that it is goodwill and entertainment value that fuels an upcoming actor's success. His behaviour is not befitting of a lead actor, especially one who's come to promote his movie," the crew member added.
The video also shows snippets of the CCTV footage wherein the Chattambi team is seen holding discussions with the channel.
