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Actor Faysal Quraishi received quite a bit of criticism for his comments on Fahad Sheikh’s alleged disrespect towards senior actor Mohammed Ahmed and subsequent apology, which he appreciated by saying it was “big of Fahad” to apologise on social media.

Now, in an Instagram story shared by his wife Sana Faysal, Quraishi says he misspoke and it was actually big of Ahmed not to name names when airing his grievances on a podcast last week.

Sana asked Quraishi what he meant when he said it was “big” of Sheikh, which the actor said was a mistake on his part.

“Actually Sana, I was trying to say it’s big of Mohammed Ahmed sahab that he wasn’t giving out names and it’s good that Fahad apologised. There was a mixup. I’ll delete the video, I just haven’t found the time.”

Quraishi said people were accusing him of favouring Sheikh because he was friends with him. “Guys, Mohammed Ahmed sahab is an older friend of mine, [we’ve been friends] for about 25 years. I made friends with these guys later, but the point is that we’re all together.”

The clarification follows an almost week-long saga after Ahmed had appeared on a podcast on Saturday and said that a “young actor” had disrespected him on set.

This brought on a deluge of supportive comments from members of the entertainment fraternity, including Quraishi, who said he needed a name and would be sure to deal with the young actor personally.

When a video purportedly showing the disrespectful incident began making rounds on social media on Wednesday, people began berating Sheikh publicly. He issued his apology to Ahmed soon after via Instagram stories.

Quraishi’s video on Thursday admonished fans for crossing boundaries in their reactions and said the matter should now be put to rest.

“The kind of comments you guys are making. Look, we all make mistakes, we all err at times in life, but that doesn’t mean you get to go after someone’s kids, or their families, or insult them, curse them and cancel them, that’s not done.”

He said the matter was between Ahmed and Sheikh and asked everyone else to “chill, calm down and let things cool down now”.