Actor Hareesh Peradi came forward criticising the act of rejecting an application of dancer ad actor R L V Ramakrishnan (brother of Kalabhavan Mani) for presenting Mohiniyattam as part of Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy’s online cultural festival. He criticised the act through a Facebook post.

If a person from a dalit community performs Mohiniyattam, will it collapse and if so, it should be banned in Kerala. The state is ruled by a government that has appointed dalits as priests. This act of the academy can be seen as an attempt to deliberately embarrass the government, he mentioned in the post. Let Ramakrishnan who attempted suicide come back to life at the earliest, he said in the post.

Ramakrishnan was admitted at the taluk hospital for taking overdose of sleeping bills. First everyone thought he consumed poison but a detailed examination revealed that it was sleeping pills. He was later shifted to a private hospital in Karukutty.

Ramakrishnan had sought permission to perform Mohiniyattam via online at the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy. Ramakrishnan alleged discrimination by the academy. Various organisations had staged protest programmes against this.