Comedian-actor Karthik Kumar on Thursday, May 16, sent a legal notice threatening to file a criminal defamation case against his ex-wife singer R Suchitra for using ‘homophobic’, ‘casteist’ and ‘ foul slurs’ against him. Karthik has demanded that Suchitra, popularly known as RJ Suchi, should cease and desist from saying anything about him and immediately retract all her statements and further issue a public apology. He has also threatened to initiate legal action against two YouTube channels – Kumudam and Reflect Talks – for allowing Suchitra to run an ‘unfounded smear campaign’ against him.
On May 13, Kumudam streamed an interview with R Suchitra in which she made several defamatory allegations against Karthik Kumar, actors Dhanush, Trisha, Andrea Jeremaiah, and Rajinikanth’s daughter Aishwarya Rajinikanth. She also claimed that Karthik and Dhanush were gay.
Suchitra also alleged that she lost her career in the cinema field due to a “prank” by her ex-husband and Dhanush. She claimed that the infamous ‘Suchi leaks’ incident was orchestrated by Karthik and Dhanush as a prank. In 2017, Suchitra’s Twitter account (now X) leaked private photos and videos of several celebrities alleging immoral activities by them. Initially, Karthik said that Suchitra’s account was compromised and that her mental health was not stable. Following the incident, Karthik and Suchitra split as a couple.
Karthik in his legal notice said that by making slanderous remarks, the singer violated the terms of their divorce by interfering with his life. The notice read that as Karthik got married again in 2021, any statement against him would be considered an interference of his personal life.
Karthik said that Kumudam provoked Suchitra to make wild, false and defamatory allegations. “The description of the video and the catchy snippets at the start make it apparent that the video has been published by you (Kumudam) with a view to fan the fire of controversy with reckless disregard for the truth and reputation of the persons involved. This is also apparent from the series of hashtags following the description of the video which make it clear that the video has been published only to garner views and profit from the spread of falsehood. You have taken no efforts to verify the allegations made by Suchitra before publishing.”
Karthik said that after Kumudam streamed the interview he has been receiving hate and violent comments, causing serious concerns to his safety and security.
The legal notice was also attached to YouTube, asking both Kumudam and YouTube to remove the video from their platform.
Following the Kumudam interview, Suchitra also gave an interview to another YouTube channel Reflect Talks where she continued to make similar allegations against Karthik and other celebrities like Anirudh, Trisha, and Vijay.