Actor Fahad Sheikh has denied disrespecting veteran actor Syed Mohammed Ahmed after a video of the pair on a drama set went viral some time back, saying the incident had been taken out of context.

The video gained attention after Mohammed Ahmed, in a recent podcast, recounted an incident in which he said a lead actor much younger than him allegedly ridiculed him on set. Ahmed said he chose not to react at the time because he did not want the incident to be shared on social media without context.

Following the interview, several actors, including Faysal Quraishi, Shamoon Abbasi, and others, urged the unnamed actor to apologise. Responding to the criticism on Instagram after a video of the set went viral, Sheikh said: “Half-cooked stories are always dangerous because they are used to set a narrative.”

"What seems like a 'bully' was not the case to begin with,” he wrote in a series of Instagram stories. “I don’t know at what point the joke he initiated himself made him feel like we were bullying him, because that was never anyone’s intent,” he said.

Fahad also said he had apologised to Ahmed before the controversy emerged. "He is my senior, I am not ashamed to ask for his forgiveness publicly," he said.

The actor said that legal action was being initiated against parties who “circulated out-of-context video material to deliberately mislead the public”. Meanwhile, Mohammed Ahmed took to his Instagram and thanked the entertainment fraternity for their love and support over the issue.