A growing number of actors, politicians and celebrities speak their minds out on social media, only to find their comments backfire on them. Joining this list is cricketer M.S. Dhoni, who has stirred a controversy by donning the ‘Balidan’ (sacrifice) badge on his glove during India’s first World Cup match against South Africa on June 5.
Motormouth Salman Khan has been constantly dissing Priyanka Chopra for dropping out of his film Bharat to marry Nick Jonas, while Jitesh Pillai, 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!
IAS officer Nidhi Chaudhari, a deputy municipal commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), triggered a row after she posted a controversial tweet on Mahatma Gandhi.
And now we have M.S. Dhoni sporting ‘Balidan’ (sacrifice) badge on his glove that has ICC objecting to it, saying “it’s a breach of the rules and regulations.”
While celebrity statements/ behaviour goes viral in no time, when they say or do things that are insensitive, or against rules, it boomerangs on them and shows them in poor light.
M.S. Dhoni, who till date, has led his life without any majorcontroversy, has been called out this time.
Like Boria Majumdar, well known cricket commentator, rightly tweeted, “Can we please agree that MSD does not need to prove his patriotism by wearing insignia. He is a patriot and a legend of the game. Insignia or no insignia this won’t change. Here he is on a mission to win the World Cup. That should be priority.”
Others too commented that what Dhoni did was ‘unnecessary.’
As opposed to calm and composed Dhoni, Salman Khan has been called a ‘toxic male’ who cannot digest it when someone has the courage to walk out on him. Divya Spandana, on the other hand, has vanished from the social scene, rumour is she was pulled up by her party and told to ‘back off’.
Salman Khan
And Jitesh Pillai. Well, Hina Khan had the last laugh as just about everyone in showbiz and others too, hit out at Jitesh for his nasty tweet — “Cannes has suddenly become Chandivali studios kya?” — while commenting on Hina’s picture from red carpet.
And Hina got even more publicity for her Cannes appearance.
Why do people go overboard with their nasty comments on public platforms?
Brand manager Abhishek Asthana aka Gabbbar 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 their 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.”
Vivek Oberoi
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 K.L. Rahul on Koffee with Karan.”
Of course, Bollywood actors are known and prone to go overboard at times. Salman Khan, known for his misogynistic statements, mocked Priyanka Chopra for choosing marriage over his film which he claimed as the ‘biggest project in her life’. He didn’t stop at that but went on and on at every interview while promoting his film Bharat. And ended up receiving a lot of flak.
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 too 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 the target of Jitesh Pillai’s acerbic tweet, reportedly said that trolls posting offensive comments is one thing — they are faceless people, perhaps having a miserable life — but why do those who seemingly have it all lay everything on the line for the sake of publicity?
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 landed in a soup for dissing PM Modi. Her last 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 officer 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.
