Twitter battle rages over boycotting Deepika’s latest film ‘Chhapaak’

New Delhi, January 8

A day after Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone visited JNU to express solidarity with the students who were attacked by a mob, a controversy erupted with #boycottchhapaak trending on Twitter and even a BJP MP calling for boycotting her latest film.

‘Chhapaak’ is the upcoming movie of Padukone based on an acid attack survivor.

South Delhi BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri on Wednesday asked people to boycott ‘Chhapaak’ for her support to the “tukde-tukde gang”. 

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• Why BJP is persisting with its CAA pitch
• Deepika Padukone visits JNU to express solidarity with students

Bidhuri said a Bollywood star is supposed to give a “positive message” to youth in the country through movies instead of being seen with those who are against the country.

Padukone on Tuesday visited JNU and met students who were injured in an attack by masked men and women on Sunday last.

Meanwhile, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said not only artistes, even a common man can go anywhere to express his opinion and there cannot be any objection over it.

“Why only artistes, any common man can go anywhere to express his opinion, there cannot be any objection,” Javadekar said when asked about Padukone attending a protest in JNU.

Asked about the call by some BJP functionaries to boycott her upcoming movie, Javadekar said he had not read the remarks and sought to underscore the significance of his statement, saying he is stating so as a minister and regular BJP spokesperson.

Padukone’s decision to attend the protest meeting, even though she did not speak at it, has riled up some people, who have called for a boycott of her movie Chhapaak.

Many people and Bollywood personalities also supported Deepika and lauded her courage for standing up to violent mob and atrocities against JNU students. 

Director Anurag Kashyap even changed his Twitter profile photo to Deepika Padukone meeting the students in JNU. 

They had even cancelled their tickets to the film, which opens on Friday and some social media users posted screenshots.

However, it did not take long to figure out that a lot of people who tweeted #boycottchhapaak and posted screenshots were curiously sharing the exact same tickets, seats A8, A9 and A10 for the 6.50 pm show at a theatre in Vadodara.

Another point of controversy gaining traction on Twitter was the name of the attacker who threw acid on Laxmi Agarwal was Nadeem Khan which is purportedly changed to Rajesh in the movie. — Agencies