Kochi, Feb 7

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his cabinet colleague T. Radhakrishnan visited superstar Mohanlal, smarting under a backlash for the poor performance of his newly formed musical band Lalisom, at his residence here early Saturday.

The purpose of the visit was to pacify the superstar who had Thursday returned to the organisers of the ongoing National Games a cheque for Rs.1.63 crores he got for his musical band's debut performance at the opening ceremony of the Games, held in the state capital Jan 31.

"He said in the coming days he will inform us how that money should be utilized. He has already returned the cheque and once we get to know from him, on how that money should be used, we will deposit the cheque into that account," Radhakrishnan told IANS.

Chandy had already given a clean chit to Mohanlal and said that the government was pained to see that the actor faced flak for participating in a programme for the government.

As the musical programme began, the audience at the venue felt that its quality was very poor. Those who watched the programme live on TV also had the same opinion.

Soon thereafter started a massive social media campaign forcing the superstar to take the decision that he will return the money that he was given as expenses for the event.

With this new development, it appears that both the government and the superstar feel relieved that the issue has been sorted out.