On the night of November 2, 2021, actor Vijay Sethupathi was attacked by an unidentified man at Bengaluru airport and a video of the man lunging at the Makkal Selvan from behind, went viral on social media. While initial reports claimed that the attacker was someone by the name Johnson, the man himself has now come forward and he goes by the name Maha Gandhi. 

An actor himself, Maha Gandhi seems to have a few lesser known films to his credit and a video interview of his brings a communal angle to this whole incident. According to Maha Gandhi he hasn't watched any Vijay Sethupathi films but went on to wish the actor for his National award because they "belong to the same community". However he was angered when Vijay Sethupathi responded to the wish by asking "Is this a nation?".

Maha Gandhi further alleged that Vijay Sethupathi insulted their community by asking who 'Guru' is - a term used for a prominent figure in their caste, and stated that the only Guru he knows is a "jewish carpenter" i.e. Jesus. It is worth mentioning here that prior to this, Vijay Sethupathi opened up on the incident to TNM and said,

"A very minor issue was blown out of proportion because an onlooker shot the incident on his phone. He (the attacker) was drunk. When people are not in their senses they behave like that.. he was not a fan. He got into an argument with us. The argument continued when we landed..we took that man to the police station and it was all sorted out. Nothing major."

Maha Gandhi on the other hand has claimed that when they landed after his bitter inflight exchange with Vijay Sethupathi, he was attacked by two people while waiting to collect his bags at the counter. He has also said that he is waiting for the footage from the airport management to get an idea of it was an intentional altercation or not.