Kerala State Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran had recently taken to task the donations given by Malayalam stars, suggesting that they had not been generous enough. In his speech, the minister had referred to an 'actor from Andhra' who had given a much bigger sum than the Malayalam stars, who he said earned in crores.
Now, the minister has written a Facebook post, clarifying his comments and elaborating on why he made his observations.
It was believed that the minister had made the comments in the context of Telugu star Prabhas making a donation of Rs 1 crore as was widely reported. However, later reports said that Prabhas had donated Rs 25 lakh and not Rs 1 crore.
In his post, Kadakampally Surendran said that he was referring to Tamil actor Raghava Lawrence, who is also a director and choreographer. Raghava Lawrence had recently announced that he will be contributing Rs 1 crore to the Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Management.
The minister's post reads:
"It was Tamil actor Raghava Lawrence who gave Rs 1 crore to the chief Minister's relief fund. In my speech on the other day, I was actually referring to Raghava Lawrence. My observation was not meant to belittle anyone. I was talking about Raghava Lawrence the actor who came running to Kerala to console us during floods. I am making this clarification so that there is no inconvenience for actor Prabhas who has donated Rs 25 lakh to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund."
Adding that he did not want a controversy on his statement the Minister wrote, "The only intention of the observation was to praise that actor's goodwill. I am thankful to everyone who has come forward to help Kerala."
Actor Sheela, too, had said that the amounts donated by Malayalam stars, who earned in crores and had cars worth Rs 3-4 crores, were insufficient.