'People use Appa's name for publicity'

Intersting to see how media creates all sorts of news by hair splitting where there is none

'People use Appa's name for publicity'

… says Aishwarya on reports that the sisters are trying to cash in on Brand Rajinikanth

Lata Srinivasan

Arecent newspaper report that Soundarya and Aishwarya are trying to outdo each other in staking claim to Rajinikanth has not gone down well with the Superstar's family. In fact, the report also states that Dhanush has attempted to cash in on his father-in-law's popularity as well.
Speaking to CT, an extremely upset Aishwarya Dhanush says, "It's amazing how people can be so confident and write such false news on the front page. Even journalism has ethics and everyone should follow them. We are all accessible and they could have picked up the phone and asked us. I think they just want to use Rajinikanth's name however, whichever way they want to grab attention — I don't think that's right; that's not ethical journalism."
So, is there any sibling rivalry between her and Soundarya? "Why would there be? If you sit back and think logically, Soundarya's kind of direction is animation; she's not into feature films whereas I am. Even Suriya and Karthi are part of the same industry, how come no one talks about rivalry between them? Why is it only when Rajinikanth is involved you want to write controversies?" she asks.
Clarifying about Dhanush cashing in on the Superstar's popularity, Aishwarya says, "Neither Dhanush nor I have been interested in using Appa's name ever. We have been married for eight years and I don't think you'd have ever seen Appa at any of Dhanush's audio release functions or movie success functions. Everyone says it is easy for us to just call him and he'll come because he's my father and Dhanush's father-in-law. It's very hurtful when people say or write things like this. It's also hurtful when you bring up a person's illness — whatever happened during my father's illness is very personal and it's very wrong to talk about it today. We have sailed through it as a family, though it was very hard at that point. Someone from the family had to talk to the press and it so happened that people in the press knew Dhanush and he spoke. It's not fair to state that he would try to gain fame from something like this. Even if you write a story, you need to write it with a heart. When people say they are well-wishers of our family, they should say it because they really mean it — otherwise they shouldn't say it!"