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Actor Siddharth, who was in Bengaluru to promote his upcoming film Chithha, was forced to leave a press conference at the city’s SRV theatre by members of a pro-Kannada group. The actor took to Instagram to react to the incident.
He took to social media to state: "Yesterday, in Bengaluru there was an incident. The backstory of it is that this is the first time, as a producer, I screened my film to many ahead of the movie’s theatrical release. It was shown to the media in Chennai and Kochi. There was a plan for such a show in Bengaluru as well. I had plans to show the film to about 2,000 students ahead of the release. No one has done it so far. There was also a plan to screen the film for Kannada stars that night. But everything was cancelled by us as a mark of respect to the bandh. We incurred a huge loss, but beyond that, it was disappointing that we couldn’t share a good film with people there."
He further added, "The press was supposed to watch the film after the interaction, but you all saw what happened there. It happened in front of many cameras. I don’t want to talk about it. When the film is getting a good response, I don’t want to talk about anything to distract the attention. There’s no relation between my film and the issue. I believe my social responsibility will show up in the films I make spending my money."
For the unversed, several pro-Kannada organisations and farmer groups have called for Karnataka Bandh in protest against releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu on 29 September.
Owing to the pressure from the protesters, during Siddharth's press conference, he was forced to leave the press conference.
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