Actor Vivek Oberoi found himself at the receiving end of plenty of criticism on Monday when he reposted a crass and tasteless meme about the elections, which took a dig at Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai’s personal life. After the backlash, he deleted the tweet on Tuesday and apologised for the same.
On Tuesday, Vivek tweeted that something that may appear to be funny at first glance to one may not be so to others. “Even if one woman is offended by my reply to the meme, it calls for remedial action. Apologies. tweet deleted,” he said.
Even if one woman is offended by my reply to the meme, it calls for remedial action. Apologies tweet deleted.
— Vivek Anand Oberoi (@vivekoberoi) May 21, 2019
However, he also justified himself like many men have when they have been called out, that he has been working to empower over 2,000 underprivileged girls. Empowering 2,000 girls does not mean that he is incapable of disrespecting a woman, ever.
He reacted to actor Sonam Kapoor criticising his tweet on Aishwarya by taking a dig at her personal and professional life. He told ANI that some people just want to appear “cool” on social media and then went on to list what he had done for empowering girls.
“I have been working on women empowerment since 10 years ago when Sonam was working on her makeover. So I want to tell Sonam – you are a good girl. I have a lot of respect for your father Anil Kapoor. But I want to respond to what you have written [on Twitter]… I want to give you some advice… God bless you, but overact less in your films, and overreact less on social media,” Vivek said.
Vivek Oberoi speaks on Sonam Kapoor's reaction to his tweet (on exit polls), "...Aap apni filmon mein thoda kam overact karein aur social media pe thoda kam overreact karein. I've been working in women empowerment for 10 yrs now. I don't think this is hurting anyone's sentiments" pic.twitter.com/pOWAwO29N6
— ANI (@ANI) May 20, 2019
Before he apologised on Tuesday morning, Vivek justified his tweet while speaking with ANI, saying that it had not harmed anyone. And if it had, the concerned party would have spoken up.
Vivek also told PTI earlier that people were trying to “stop him” by going after him for sharing an apparently harmless meme because they couldn’t stop his film. The film he is referring to is PM Narendra Modi, where he plays the role of the prime minister. The release of the film, being touted as a biopic on Modi, has been delayed for release on the Election Commission's orders as its release during the general elections would have violated the Model Code of Conduct.