"I want all his fan clubs to be pulled down on Twitter."
Actress Meera Chopra has voiced her anger and disgust concerning the backlash she received for revealed that she is not a fan of the Telugu film actor Junior NTR.
The actress hosted an “Ask Meera” session on Twitter in which she was asked whether she was a fan of Junior NTR.
Upon admitting that she is not, Meera was bombarded with abuse online and threatening with acts of physical violence, rape, murder threats and more.
Speaking about the incident, Meera Chopra revealed the shocking abuse she received. She said:
“I conducted an ‘Ask Meera’ session on Twitter and a fan asked me about my favourite actor from the South film industry.
“I said Mahesh Babu. Then somebody asked if I liked Junior NTR, and I said, ‘I don’t know him and I’m not a fan.’
“That’s it. As soon as I said that, I was bombarded with abuses, murder threats, rape threats, character assassination and threats against my parents.
“Some morphed my face with porn actors. I’ve got close to 30,000 abusive tweets so far.”
Meera was asked if as a female celebrity, she feels disgusted when a woman is subjected to character abuse because their opinions are not what others expect them to be. She replied:
“Is there no freedom of choice and expression left in today’s social media world? How can it be a crime to not be somebody’s fan?
“We can’t possibly love everybody. I’ve been tagged a whore, porn star, b**** and what not for just expressing my opinion on not being a Junior NTR fan!
“It’s unfortunate. I’ve been given threats of gang rape, wishes that my parents die of Covid-19. Is this a civilised society?
“I am angry, but not scared. I’ve been constantly talking about women issues and here I face one myself.”
Meera continued to mention that she is taking action against the abuse she has been receiving. She said:
“I am already in talks with the cyber cell team. I’ve always advocated that women should fight for themselves and stand against what’s wrong.
“Then how can I not do anything about this? You cannot character assassinate a woman, give threats and abuse her for sharing her choice.
“I have raised my voice against such fan clubs. These are the kind of people who go out and commit rapes and murder.”
The actress went on to share how she believes stars should call out their “twisted fanbase”. She said:
“I feel sad for such stars who have such a twisted fanbase, is this what stardom is?”
“I think a star should address such fan clubs and insist that they refrain from such hooliganism.
“But they don’t do that. Their fans openly discussing gang rapes and murders and they also use their DPs [display pictures], but stars just stay quiet.”
Meera Chopra further added that she has tagged Junior NTR in abusive tweets being shared, as she hopes “he responds to his fans.”
Despite not feeling scared by such online trolls, Meera voiced her concern for women in India. She said:
“Apart from threats to me, one of the trolls wrote: ‘Your parents will die soon because of corona.’
“How can such statements not incite anger in you? I want all his fan clubs to be pulled down on Twitter.
“People who have given death threats and gang rape threats should be arrested. And if that doesn’t happen, I’ll start believing that there is no safety for women in our country.”
Despite being slammed on Twitter by many people, Meera Chopra has also received support from sections of the online community.
Taking to Twitter, Meera Chopra acknowledged the support she received in filing an FIR. She wrote:
“A big thanks to @NCWIndia and @sharmarekha for helping me filing an FIR. Safety of women is always compromised but we get our support and strength from people like u.”
A big thanks to @NCWIndia and @sharmarekha for helping me filing an FIR. Safety of women is always compromised but we get our support and strength from people like u. ??
— Meera Chopra Kejriwal (@MeerraChopra) June 3, 2020
On Wednesday morning [3 June 2020] the hashtag #wesupportmeerachopra was trending on number one on Twitter in India.
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