In May 1985, actor Suman was arrested under a draconian Act passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly. At that time, he was the most sought-after romantic hero in Tamil cinema and his popularity was on the rise in Telugu cinema. He was accused of drugging three young women and shooting pornographic videos without their consent. He was eventually proven innocent. He was also the first person to get bail among those booked under the Goondas Act.
While the reasons for his arrest are different, at that time, the gossip mills worked overtime to defame Megastar Chiranjeevi. Yes, you read it right!
Gossip columns in Telugu-language publications used to say that Chiranjeevi was the person who got Suman framed in the false case. The claim was absurd on so many levels. Someone of Chiru's stature couldn't have influenced the Tamil Nadu police to frame Suman under a draconian law.
Chiru used to have zero influence over what the media wrote about him. He couldn't open his mouth and even if he did so, his defense might have been blacked out.
This was not the only occasion when Chiru was targeted by the media. In the 2000s, a prominent daily accused him of resorting to land grabbing in Hyderabad without publishing any evidence. Chiru was hurt but he couldn't do anything about it.
