Most actors face trolling, online abuse and/or harassment on social media on a regular basis. If it’s a woman actor, chances of her receiving abusive comments on her social media posts and photographs are even higher.
Actor Rashmika Mandanna had a similar experience recently, and she took to Instagram to respond to a particularly distasteful and misogynistic post. The post in question had a collage of her childhood photos and was shared by a handle named “trollaaya_namah”.
Sharing the abusive post on her Instagram story, Rashmika asked why trolls targeted public figures ruthlessly - “I don’t know what you guys get out of doing this to us actors. Is it because we are a soft target to you? [Being a] Public figure doesn’t mean you can target us ruthlessly.”
Explaining that she generally ignores trolls, Rashmika wrote that no one had the right to discuss an actor’s personal life. “A lot of you keep saying - ignore the bad comments or trolls and I generally do. Say anything you want about our work - you have the right.. but no one has any right to say anything about our families or our personal lives. No actor deserves this crap (sic),” she wrote.
Adding that being an actor was not easy, Rashmika pointed out that people needed to respect each other first, and that every profession deserves to be respected. “Because let me tell you this, being an actor is not easy - each and every profession deserves utmost respect. I think people first need to start respecting one another. Congratulations [to] whoever did this. You have managed to hurt me. Didn’t think of you were capable of doing that, but what’s to follow is on you,” she said.
Rashmika, who was last seen playing an important role in Dear Comrade alongside Vijay Deverakonda, has five films in three different languages in the making. She will be making her Tamil debut in Karthi’s Sultan directed by Bakkiyaraj Kannan of Remo fame. Rashmika’s role in Dear Comrade has received plenty of acclaim.
On Thursday, the first look of her upcoming film Bheeshma, directed by Venky Kudumula, was released.