Anil Radhakrishnan Menon-Bineesh Bastin spark row; actor sits on stage

A college event in Kerala attracted a controversy after actor Bineesh Bastin protested alleged reluctance of National Award-winning director Anil Radhakrishna Menon to share the stage with him. The actor protested over it, by sitting on the stage, the video of which is going viral now. Terming it the ‘most insulting day’ of his life, Bineesh also brought out a caste angle, by saying he was not Menon, and neither a National Award winner. Menon, however, denied that he ever said he was not willing to share the stage with a lesser-known actor, and that he actually didn’t wish to share the stage with anyone. He apologised to Bastin.

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Videos go viral

In a video that has gone viral on Facebook, Bineesh is seen entering the event at Government Medical College in Palakkad when Anil Radhakrishna Menon is addressing the students. He goes and directly sits on the stage, on the ground. Those associated with the event, request him to stand up, which he shrugs off for some time, before getting up. He then tells the gathering that the director said he won’t share the stage with someone like him. Bineesh said that he was not a Menon, an upper-caste among Malayalis, and that he was not a National Award-winner like the director. Bineesh also said that the director claimed to the organisers that Bineesh was someone who had asked him for work, but was not selected for his films. He also reads a few lines written on a paper he had carried that “Caste is not the problem”, before walking off. 

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Later, he also shot a video from his car, where he vented out, “Today is the most insulting day of my life. I was invited as a guest here. But an hour ago, the college union chairman told me that Anil doesn’t want to share the stage with an ordinary actor like me. Anil said that I had gone to him asking for a chance (role) in his film. I am not a Menon nor am I a National Award-winning actor. I felt very, very sad. Nobody should be treated this way.” 

Bineesh also claimed, as per reports, that the Principal now claims that he had not been invited. However, the actor said that posters of the event with both the celebrities were put up. He also said that he was informed at the hotel where he was staying that he should not come to the event as Menon doesn’t wish to share the stage with a ‘third-grade actor’, he claimed was told. 

Menon, in an interview with a media portal, however, said that initially he was told that he’d be the chief guest for the event, but when he was told that Bineesh too has been invited, he asked the organisers to be excused from the event since he didn’t want to share the stage with anyone. "I like Bineesh Bastin. I have even planned to give acharacter for him in my next film. I am sorry from the bottom of my heart if the incident has hurt him," he told television channels, as per PTI. 

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Bineesh has worked in Vijay’s Theri in 2016. He has also worked in many others films in Tamil and Malayalam. Menon had directed North 24 Kaatham, that won the National Award for Best Malayalam film in 2013. 

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