Recently, we reported about Youth actor-director Ken Karunaas saying that many heroines have rejected his offers to star in films and some did not even respond to his messages about the same. In a conversation with Cineulagam, the actor-filmmaker said that he has faced this experience, much like Pradeep Ranganathan and Abishan Jeevinth have recently. Interestingly, Ken's comments have been linked to a broader debate about colourism and perception of beauty in cinema.

Speaking to Galatta Plus, Ken clarified his recent comments, saying that he only meant to say the lack of trust among heroines for a newcomer such as him and their doubts about such filmmakers' talents. "What I actually meant was the believability was less in the initial stage. But now, it has turned out to be part of a discussion about colour tones," the filmmaker explained.

Elaborating on his comments, Ken Karunaas added that these have been mistakenly projected as heroines showing reluctance to work with him because of his skin tone. "I did not even talk about it. I only spoke about believability. I myself am black; why should I say that a black actress does not want to work with me?"

Ken also expressed regret for his sarcastic comments about heroines who made reels with parts of the 'Mutta Kalakki' song from his upcoming film Youth. In the interview, he said in a sarcastic tone that the same actresses who rejected him made the reels and suggested that they pretended to care about him and his upcoming film. In the latest interview, he said that he went overboard with his comments and that these were 'spur-of-the-moment' remarks. "Obviously, we learn from our mistake. I thought I should not be doing that in the future," Ken added.

Boasting music by GV Prakash, Youth is slated for a March 19 release in theatres.