'Worship is not allowed in my religion': Ali Goni on Ganpati controversy, 'If I had to disrespect him, why would I go there, I respect all religions'

Recently, a video of TV actor Aly Goni during Ganesh Utsav went viral, in which he was seen with girlfriend Jasmin Bhasin. During the aarti, Jasmine and actress Nia Sharma were chanting Ganpati Bappa Morya, however, Ali did not say Ganpati Bappa Morya. As the video went viral, social media users heavily criticized Ali. He was penned vulgar comments. In this regard, Ali has now revealed that he is constantly receiving threats due to the controversy. Talking about the controversy in an interview with 'Filmigyan' (entertainment website), Ali Goni said, "This has been going on for the last four-five days, the day it happened, I never thought that something like this would happen, because I am such a person, I believe in all religions. I have a lot of love for every religion in my heart. I don't say this for the sake of saying this. I am not acting. If I had to act, I would have said something there. "I didn't understand, I was lost in my thoughts, I was thinking of something, what was I doing? I never paid so much attention to the fact that such a big problem could arise on these things. There are a lot of newcomers in this country, I know, because I keep watching what's going on on Twitter. Twitter (now X) is very bad, it's dirty, whether it's a man or a woman. "I saw a girl's page, she was abusing Jasmine and my mother and Jasmine's mother, she was saying nasty things. Imagine a girl. I won't feel sorry for myself because I can say what I want to say because my heart is clear. If I want to disrespect any religion, why should I go there so prepared. You can clearly see that I had gone for the festival wearing special clothes. I went for Ganpati for the first time. You know, I don't go there,' Ali continued, 'I can't be a fake for the people who love us. There is no need for me to go there if there is worship of Ganpati, because I do not know what to do there. To this day, I have been thinking all my life that I should not do something wrong. I'm very random. I can say anything at any time. I do anything. I was always afraid that something might go wrong out of my mouth. Something funny might happen. So I used to say, 'I don't know what to do in the puja'." "If I go to the mosque to offer namaz and I take my non-Muslim friend with me, how will he know what to do? Why would I take him? I won't take him because I know he doesn't know anything. What will he do? So I never went that way because I didn't know what to do in the puja." We don't do pujas etc. We have a belief that we pray and pray. And we respect all religions. I can't say this, but it is written in the Quran that we should respect other religions. I was brought up among Hindus. I am from Jammu. I was born in Kashmir but I was educated in Jammu. There is a street near my house where I used to live, which is called Bave Wali Gali. The name of that street is Bawe Vali Gali because Bawe Vali Mata is there. Whenever any of our relatives came there, I always went with them. I have gone to Vaishno Devi with my friends. I've been everywhere. I have respect in my heart, I have respect in my heart. I will never say a bad word for any religion. I am not saying this just for the sake of Hinduism," he said. Nia Sharma shared a photo with Ali and Jasmine on her Instagram story. "It is the greatest honour in itself to be a part of one's festival and we in India celebrate Ganpati Mahotsav, Eid and every festival with the same devotion and enthusiasm.