Actor Richa Chadda of Masaan fame is currently being subjected to abuses and hateful comments on social media for saying that she had more in common with Pakistani actor Fawad Khan than with her fellow countrymen down south. A question posed to Fawad Khan by a journalist at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne had Chadda answering, pointing out that cultures don’t work with stereotyped, quashing many cultural differences between India and Pakistan.
“I would like to answer that. You know we were colonised by the British for a really long time. If you look at worldwide history, every time the British left an empire, they divided it. Whether it was North Korea or South Korea, then there was Germany. It is a part of the strategy to keep political unrest… I am sorry but your question, to me, doesn’t make sense because I will have far more in common with Fawad because I am from the North of India than I will have with somebody who is a Tambrahm or maybe Malayali or from the North East. I think we should avoid stereotyping in questions or creating some kind of contradiction here because the whole intent and especially art does really have any borders,” she answered.
While she agreed to a Twitter user about getting the facts on the British Empire bit incorrect, her statements on having more in common with Pakistani actor Fawad Khan irked many, subjecting her to abuses and troll comments.
@RichaChadha_ Madam please try to stay in limits when you speak on the big stage. Stop pleasing the mafias to remain in business.
— RSG Blue (@rsg_blue) August 24, 2016
@RichaChadha_ I can’t blame you for saying that..Us Tam Brahms have to put up with dimwits like you all the time 😀 get well soon!
— Kailash R (@ramanathan85) August 23, 2016
So, a bollywood bimbette @RichaChadha_ says she has more in common with a Muslim Pakistani than a Tam Brahm. hahaha
— Rahul (@gigglemug) August 22, 2016
True! A Bimbo like @RichaChadha_ will have more in common with Dumb Pakis than Intellectually gifted TamBrahms :)) https://t.co/Wr7z8gTyMV
— मुरली Swaminathan (@mswami) August 22, 2016
The trolls ranged from questioning her allegiance to the country to taking offence at supposedly ‘slighting’ the Tamil Brahmin community.
“Thanks for missing the point. I love Tamil so much that I can read and write the language. But troll on!” she answered to one, and “Didn’t support any regressive practices. Can you show me where I may have done that? Like take a screenshot and share plz [sic],” the actress responded.
Getting trolled for ‘hurtful’ comments isn’t a first in the country. Chadha’s story comes soon after actor-politician Ramya/Divya Spandana’s ‘Pakistan is not hell‘ comment garnered extreme reactions and a sedition charge. Accused of being a Pakistani sympathisera for what appeared to be a benign observation, Ramya too faced flak and was lauded an ‘anti-national’ in Karnataka.