Actor Vijay Deverakonda has issued a clarification regarding his remarks made during the recent pre-release event of Retro, which sparked controversy and drew criticism from certain quarters. He stated that it was never his intention to offend or hurt anyone’s sentiments.
“I have come to know that my comments at the Retro event may have hurt the sentiments of some people. I want to clarify that I never intended to insult any community or group. I hold every group in high regard and believe that all people of India are one. We must move forward together in unity,” he said in a statement.
“I have never deliberately discriminated against any group. I consider everyone to be like family. If anyone felt hurt by my comments, I sincerely regret it. My only goal is to speak about peace.”
Deverakonda further explained that his choice of words was based on historical and dictionary references. “I used the term in the context of how, hundreds of years ago, society was organized into groups, and there were frequent conflicts between such groups. I never referred to the current Scheduled Tribes. The concept of categorization began after the British started ruling India, and even that hasn’t been around for more than a century,” he clarified.
It is known that Telangana Tribes Association President and advocate Kishanraj Chauhan, along with representatives, had lodged a police complaint alleging that Deverakonda’s comments were offensive toward tribal communities.