Ragini Dwivedi lashes out at TV anchor who said 'actresses use drugs for anti-aging' 
Karnataka

Ragini Dwivedi lashes out at TV anchor who said 'actresses use drugs for anti-aging'

The anchor was taking responses from various Sandalwood personalities about a recent drug bust when he made the statement.

Written by : TNM Staff

Kannada actor Ragini Dwivedi has taken to task Public TV, a Kannada news channel, after one of its anchors made misogynistic remarks about women actors in Sandalwood, and for targeting her on television. On Saturday morning, the news channel, which was broadcasting a bulletin related to the recent drug bust conducted by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), had called actor Ragini Dwivedi for a reaction. 

Two days ago, the NCB had busted an inter-state drug racket and seized huge amounts of ecstasy in Bengaluru and Pune. Three accused were arrested in Bengaluru and Tumakuru. Following this, the NCB had issued a statement which said that actors and musicians from Karnataka were under the NCB’s scanner for alleged drug use. 

The news channel was reportedly procuring reactions from various personalities in Sandalwood on Saturday morning. During the bulletin, the anchor of the channel, MR Arvind, said to Ragini via a telephonic conversation, “But women actors inject drugs into their faces for anti-aging." To this, the actor lashed out and said, “Where did you get such information from?” Ragini was then disconnected from the phone call. 

“Mr Arvind (anchor) sits on the show and speaks without getting any facts right, talks about ANTI-AGING and attaches it with drug (use) and when asked to clarify and authenticate his statement, he cuts my call,” Ragini tweeted. 

She further demanded action against the anchor. “Anchor MR Arvind is sitting on your esteemed channel and talking without doing homework or knowledge about actresses and anti-aging. To demean actresses, he said and I quote 'actresses use drugs on skin for anti-aging'. I said, 'I need clarity on this immediately.' When I asked for clarity, your channel cut my call hence to put it out there pls EXPLAIN this theory (sic),” Ragini tweeted. 

The actor demanded that the news channel issue a clarification on the matter and asked that they get their facts right before broadcasting information on television. She also condemned the anchor’s question and said that the channel was putting down women in Sandalwood by asking such questions. “Request Public TV to take immediate action on half knowledge anchors or hosts ... This needs to be done for the respect of women in the industry and in general (sic),” she said. 

Soon after Ragini put out a series of tweets, the news channel published a story claiming that Ragini had lashed out against filmmaker Indrajit Lankesh. During Saturday’s broadcast, the channel had also called Indrajit Lankesh, who had said that parties and drug use occur in the film industry.  

“When asked for clarity about statements related to anti-aging from your anchor who is sitting at a public forum and making uneducated statements about scientific terms, you have started a new controversy on me. Must be so, so proud of your actions,” Ragini tweeted, along with a screenshot of the bulletin on the news channel. 

“Drugs as an issue should be resolved at the earliest. As it is a plague to our society. As the dealers have been now captured, (I am) congratulating the narcotics bureau who have done this work and requesting them to get to the (bottom) of this circuit for the good of all (sic),” she added.