On October 19, photographer Pretika Menon took to Facebook to narrate her experience while shooting for Prashanth-starrer Ponnar Shankar, as a part of the #MeToo movement. In the post, she had accused actor-director Thiagarajan of sexual misconduct at the sets of the 2011 film. 

Thiagarajan held a press meet today to respond to these allegations. The actor began to speak after screening a war sequence from the film in question. "Pretika has alleged that I tried to abuse her during the shoot of this particular sequence. The accusation is completely false as I was completely held up with the shoot and didn't have time for anything apart from that. She had mentioned I knocked her door thrice during the night, but actually, the entire sequence was shot at night with a large number of junior artistes," he said. 

"There is nothing true about her complaint. She was hired only as an intern photographer., but she left the sets within a few days owing to her illness. I haven't interacted with her in any form after that. I will file a defamation case against her soon for ruining my reputation," he added.

Supporting Thiagarajan, Radha Ravi who was also present at the meet said, "Incidents like these don't happen without consent. If we are going to encourage such accusers, it will only lead to blackmailing of VIPs in the future, and we might even be forced to make male actors take on heroine roles to escape these accusations." Talking about singer Chinmayi he said, "She is a very good child. I don't know what is wrong with her all of a sudden. I strongly believe someone is behind her recent actions."