At a recent promotional event for their upcoming film Dude, a reporter told Pradeep Ranganathan that he is “not a hero material”. The reporter started her question by asking Pradeep not to take it negatively. And while her intention might have been to understand why Pradeep is considered a top-tier hero, her words left a lot to be desired as far as his Dude co-star R Sarathkumar is concerned. The actor interjected the conversation, grabbed the microphone from Pradeep and gave it back to the reporter. Sarathkumar said, “I have been in this industry, I have done 170 films. You cannot say A to Z, who is the hero material. Everybody over is a hero material. To look like a hero, you do not have any specification for a hero, right? A person doing any act which is going to be benefiting the society is a hero.”

A section of the audience applauded Sarathkumar’s answer right away. Later, his actor wife Radhika Sarathkumar also supported him and Pradeep. Sharing a video of the interaction on X, Radhika wrote, “What is this question??? Well said Sarathkumar.” She also threw her weight behind Pradeep, saying, “more power to you.”

Dude is slated for an October 17 release. A romantic comedy film, it also stars Mamitha Baiju in the lead role. The cast includes Rohini Molleti, Aishwarya Sharma, Dravid Selvam, and Hridhu Haroon, among others.