‘Ranjini Haridas initially laughed but later burst into tears backstage,’ Alleppey Ashraf recalls Jagathy Sreekumar’s insult

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‘What Jagathy did to her on that stage was purely insulting’

Actor-filmmaker Alleppey Ashraf recently took a trip down memory lane and opened up about the incident. He noted that although Ranjini Haridas stood there smiling at the time without losing her cool, she later went backstage and burst into tears as it hurt her immensely. “She faced an experience there that caused her deep heartbreak and humiliation. It came from the respected artiste Jagathy Sreekumar. What Jagathy did to her on that stage was purely insulting. Kerala had never before seen a scene where a guest insulted the anchor. Jagathy’s behaviour was as if he were settling some kind of grudge against her,” Ashraf shared in a video on his YouTube channel.

He added, “The ‘flaw’ Jagathy found in her was his belief that a host should never act as a judge. Mocking her, Jagathy said in English, ‘Alright, it is a very beautiful performance, let us give full marks, judges.’ The audience roared with laughter hearing him. Hiding her sadness and embarrassment, Ranjini, who was standing right next to Jagathy, also laughed along with them.”

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Jagathy, however, did not stop there. He went one step further and gave her a piece of advice: to look at Nazriya Nazim and learn from her. “Nazriya was also on stage at the time. Jagathy shouted out that Nazriya doesn’t give verdicts while anchoring. However, one must remember that at that time, Nazriya was actually looking up to Ranjini as a mentor and imitating her anchoring style. While Jagathy took joy in winning applause by insulting Ranjini Haridas, her heart was throbbing with pain. Suppressing that agony, she stood there with a smile and continued her work.”

Ashraf continued, “However, during the break later, she went behind the stage and sobbed, unable to bear the grief. But the response Ranjini gave later was a testament to her great personality and character. She said, ‘It’s not that I didn’t know how to give a retort; I was simply trying not to insult a guest.’ We have never heard Ranjini speaking ill of anyone’s faults. She only ever responds to the things directed at her.”

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Ranjini Haridas reacts to Jagathy Sreekumar’s criticisms

Reacting to the incident, Ranjini Haridas said during a conversation with Dhanya Varma, “That attack went on for some time, and I had enough time to think about how to respond. I could have reacted, or I could have cried, or I could have walked off, or I could have ended the show. But my moral and professional commitment was to finish the show. If I had reacted, I knew what the consequences would be the next day.”

She added, “I am someone who knows how to talk back, but I felt it wouldn’t be ethical to my work. It was the finale of a music show, and the focus should have been on the contestants, not on a controversy. So, I decided to act like it was fine, finish the show, and deal with it afterwards.”

About Jagathy Sreekumar

Widely referred to as Malayalam cinema’s “Hasya Samrat (King of Comedy),” Jagathy Sreekumar appeared in over 1,500 films in a career spanning over four decades. He met with a major accident in 2012 and has still not completely recovered from the injuries sustained at that time, which is why he hasn’t appeared in full-length roles in movies since then.