Bengaluru: Amid a row over Cauvery River water sharing raging between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, members of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike Swabhimani Sene on Thursday interrupted a press conference held by actor Siddharth for his film and demanded to leave the venue. 

The actor was promoting his upcoming film 'Chikku' in Bengaluru when members of Karnataka Karnataka Rakshana Vedike Swabhimani Sene disrupted the event, saying that it was not an appropriate time for him to do that as Tamil Nadu is demanding Cauvery River water from Karnataka. 

Now, Prakash Raj extended support to the actor and tendered an apology on behalf of Kannadigas over the incident. Taking to X (previously Twitter), Prakash Raj wrote, “Instead of questioning all the political parties and its leaders for failing to solve this decades old issue.. instead of questioning the useless parliamentarians who are not pressurising the centre to intervene.. Troubling the common man and Artists like this can not be accepted.. as a Kannadiga .. on behalf of Kannadigas. (folding hands emoji) sorry #Siddharth #justasking.”

Further, Kannada actor Shiva Rajkumar, who was last seen in Rajinikanth-starrer ‘Jailer’, also apologised to the actor on behalf of the entire Kannada film industry for the unfortunate incident. “Today, on behalf of my industry, I would like to say very sorry to Mr Siddharth. I am very hurt and such a mistake will never happen again,” he said. 

Karnataka has been witnessing protests over the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu after the Supreme Court refused to intervene in the decisions of the Cauvery Water Management Authority(CWMA) and its assisting body Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) that directed the state to do so. 

In the latest decision, the CWRC had ordered Karnataka to ensure the release of 3,000 cusecs of Cauvery water at Biligundlu starting from September 28 till October 15, 2023. In the earlier spell, it was 5,000 cusecs. 

With ANI inputs