Kiki Darling addresses past sexual assault conviction after Jack Neo drops him from 'Ah Boys to Firefighters' movie

Aspiring actor and content creator Kiki Darling has addressed his past sexual assault conviction after it was announced that he was dropped from Jack Neo's upcoming film, "Ah Boys to Firefighters".

The 26-year-old, whose real name is Hari Kishen Balakrishnan, was unveiled on Aug. 31 as one of the film's leading men.

On Sep. 9, it was revealed that Hari would no longer be part of the production after the production team became aware of his previous conviction.

Kiki Darling's statement

In a video posted on social media on Sep. 10, Hari acknowledged the offence and apologised to the victim and members of his online community for not having disclosed his past earlier.

He said he intended to continue taking responsibility for his past, and to remain accountable for his actions moving forward.

The full transcript of the video can be found here:

"Hey guys. It’s time for me to address what has been happening over the past few days, and I want this to come directly from me.

I promise to be transparent, and I promise to be clear, and I promise no more hiding.

My real name is Hari Kishen, and I'm 26 years old. Six years ago, I was involved in a sexual assault case. I was convicted and sentenced to six months of reformative training at RTC.

I want you guys to know that I take full responsibility, and the harm that I cause the victim, there's really nothing I can do to ever undo such pain.

When I was in RTC, they sent me for rehabilitation workshops and classes, and because of the nature of my case, they also sent me for counselling with a psychologist.

When I came out, I really knew that I needed to dedicate my life to move forward and to be a better person.

And through that, I decided to pursue education again.

I did my private O levels and I got into Republic Polytechnic (RP) to study culinary.

It was really through RP that I started getting all of the opportunities to work with lesser privileged communities and migrant worker communities that I realised my calling is really through volunteering.

I joined student council, I became the president, and I was also a youth advisory panellist for a government feedback unit.

I wanted to pay back somehow for everything that I've done, and it was through giving back to society.

Somewhere along the way, I started creating comedy content as Kiki Darling, and it was something that I never expected to become such a big part of my life.

It started with me doing, like just comedy and yapping, to recognising that I have built a community of people that supported me, loved me, and believed in me online and offline.

And I think this is where I need to acknowledge another mistake on my part.

It's that I've been open about my past to the people who have supported and guided me, because these were people who were giving me opportunities, and I felt like I deserved to tell them the truth.

While I had been open about my past to them, I did not extend this same opportunity and this openness to all of you, and I'm really, really, really sorry.

And I understand that after reading the news and after reading all the comments, some of you may change the way you guys see me.

Some of you are very sad, betrayed, and angry, and I totally understand that.

And I'm really, really sorry.

I wish I knew how to handle this better, and I wish it did not have to come to this point, but it did.

It was only after I applied for uni that I realised I had no access to my records anymore, and it was because of that that I felt I did not need to tell anybody anymore, and I did not realise that people would still connect me to the news articles about me.

As I became someone in the public eye, I realised that I needed to take more responsibility for my actions, be it past, present, or future, and I'm so sorry I didn't extend this to all of you, and I can just feel how terrible you guys must be feeling right now, and I'm really, really, really so sorry.

I just want you guys to know that from the past six years to now, I've really been on track to give back to community through various organisations, to pursue education to build myself, and I just wanted to show that I'm not the same person I was that time.

But I understand that this may still cause some hurt to some of you, and I totally understand that.

And I'm so sorry I did not give the people who supported me online the same choice.

Now that this is all out, I want you guys to know that I will need to move forward with my life, and I want to apologise firstly to the person I caused harm to with this case.

I want to apologise to all the people who believed in me and who felt betrayed because of this.

And I really want to apologise to all these people who have been giving me opportunities and who are also being attacked for this.

I'm not saying this because I'm trying to erase everything I did.

I just wanted to come clean and tell you guys the truth, and tell you guys that I really, really, really have been trying to build my life.

I'm so sorry it has come down to this.

I will now need to take the time to move forward with my life, to continue my school, to continue my work, and I think I will continue doing community work because it is really not something that I would take away from myself or from others.

I hope you guys can understand that this is part of my learning, and I really want to believe that I have changed.

I just want you guys to know that I'm really, really sorry, and I love you guys so much."

Convicted in 2021

In September 2021, Hari, then aged 20, pleaded guilty to committing sexual assault on a 23-year-old male friend after a night of drinking.

Hari had sexually assaulted the almost unconscious man for about 17 minutes in the bedroom of a friend's apartment.

He also took seven video clips of himself performing sex acts on the naked victim.

The clips were deleted, but police later recovered them during investigations.

"Very surprised to hear about it"

News of Hari's casting in "Ah Boys to Firefighters" prompted people in the know to raise concerns about his past criminal record.

A spokesperson from the production had told Mothership that they had verified the news on Sep. 8.

"We were very surprised to hear about it," the spokesperson said.

"None of the production crew was aware of his previous conviction as none of the cast members had declared that they had any prior convictions."

After discussions, Hari decided to resign from his role.

The spokesperson said the actor understood the "potential risks" to the production if he were to continue as one of the movie's main characters.

Work to recast the role and reshoots are currently underway, while edits will be made to remove Hari from the film.

Casting for future movie projects would go through more stringent processes, the spokesperson added.