Motormouth Salman Khan has been constantly dissing Priyanka Chopra for leaving his film Bharat to get married to Nick Jonas while the editor of a reputed film magazine mocked TV actor Hina Khan for her Cannes appearance. There’s also actor-turned-social media spokesperson of Congress, Divya Spandana who passed a rather snide comment while congratulating the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman. She doesn’t spare even PM Modi!
Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul
While celebrity statements go viral in no time at all, when they say things that are rude, insensitive or just plain offensive, it boomerangs on them and shows them in very poor light.
Salman Khan has been called a “toxic male” who cannot digest it when someone has the courage to walk out on him. Divya Spandana has vanished from the social scene, rumour is she was pulled up by her party and told to “back off”.
Hina Khan had the last laugh as just about everyone in showbiz and others too, hit out at the editor saying he was being needlessly nasty. And Hina got even more publicity for her Cannes appearance.
Why do people — and it’s not the faceless trolls who are best ignored — go overboard with their nasty comments on public platforms?
Brand manager Abhishek Asthana aka Gabbar Singh on Twitter, who has one million followers on the networking site, says, “I think a majority of celebs who say something politically incorrect do not realise the distance the message can travel. Typically, such things are said assuming a false sense of privacy when in fact, the camera is still rolling. It works for the showrunners, the producers and the anchors to coax a controversial word out of the celeb, which will then be played out millions of times on social media, gaining them enough eyeballs.”
He adds, “All it takes is a foolish celebrity prone to casual banter and a rolling camera. A glowing example would be Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul on Koffee with Karan.”
Of course, Bollywood actors are known and prone to go overboard at times. Salman Khan, who’s known for his misogynistic statements, mocked Priyanka Chopra for choosing marriage over his film which he called the ‘biggest project in her life’. The actor however, received a lot of flak from PC fans and people who criticised him for having a fragile ego.
Zero singer Abhay Jodhpurkar, who has quite a fan following on Instagram, says, “People should think twice before commenting about someone’s personal life, even if it’s a jibe or said in a funny way. They need to consider the repercussions of their comment. Social media is so powerful and a statement could be twisted or misinterpreted, so one should be really careful with words or while quoting somebody else. We’re living in a world filled with hatred... For instance, what Vivek Oberoi did was totally unnecessary, especially since he had a personal equation with those in the meme and there are families involved.”
And as Hina Khan, who was a victim of a film editor’s acerbic tweet points out, “Trolls posting offensive comments is one thing, but why do those who seemingly have it all lay everything on the line for the sake of publicity?”
Actress Payal Rohatgi, who’s known for her pro-right wing support on social media, often posts the most ludicrous comments, and was recently in the news for her pro-Sati views. Former actress and singer Suchitra Krishnamurthy is also known for her controversy-stirring statements on Twitter.
Politicians are not far behind, they are often caught saying offensive and moronic stuff — both online and offline. Actor-turned-Congress spokesperson Divya Spandana, who is usually known for her witty posts and banter, has often landed in a soup for dissing PM Modi. Her latest tweet before deactivating her Twitter account was a congratulatory message to India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Although a laudatory tweet, it had a snide remark referring to the GDP of the country. Similarly, IAS office Nidhi Choudhari recently tweeted in support of Nathuram Godse for which action was taken against her.
“Social media has become an extremely polarising space. With a high presence of trolls from all sides of the spectrum, celebrities feel a sense of impunity and confidence in blabbering controversial stuff. As they say, any publicity is good publicity,” says social media enthusiast Rakshith Ponnathpur, who adds, “So we have bureaucrats, political leaders, journalists and actors, who forego their social ethics and responsibilities and become part-time or full-time trolls on social media. This is an extremely unfortunate development of our times. Instead of using their position of influence to warn people against hate, bigotry, fake news and propaganda, they are taking an active role in spreading it further. Many sting operations have already revealed that a lot of them get paid in return for posting propaganda. A recent example is of politician Anant Kumar Hegde who tweeted in support of Godse.”
Mrinaal Deshpande, senior digital manager, Madras Global that manages the Royal Challengers Bangalore page, says, “Social media influencers and celebs should be responsible for anything and everything they say. People follow them because they look up to them in many ways, even though people may or may not be aligned with their stand on various issues like politics or ideologies. They need to remember that most of their followers are young and malleable. Hence, they should be more responsible in what they’re saying.”
