Journalism of Courage
Gurmehar Kaur row divides Bollywood: Amitabh Bachchan to Javed Akhtar, here’s who said what
1 / 7Gurmehar Kaur's ‘Fightback DU’ has divided Bollywood in two neat groups. There are those who backed the daughter of a Kargil martyr to the hilt like Javed Akhtar and Pooja Bhatt and the others who were blamed for trolling her such as Randeep Hooda and Abhijeet. And then there was Amitabh Bachchan who refused to comment, saying, "What I feel (about it) is my personal opinion. If I say it here, it will become public.” When asked about social media, he did say, "If you are on social media, you should be prepared for abuse," adding, "And I enjoy it." Naseeruddin Shah was quoted by TV channels as coming out in support of Kaur, terming her a brave girl and the comments by Sehwag and Hooda as insensitive.
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2 / 7Vidya Balan came out in support of Gurmehar Kaur. She said, "What we need to really respect is everyone’s individuality, don’t want to comment more but I think everyone should have the freedom to express, and I am totally against any kind of violence.” (Picture Credit: Varinder Chawla)
3 / 7After Gurmehar Kaur withdrew from the campaign, a miffed Javed Akhtar shared on Twitter, “If a hardly literate player or a wrestler troll a pacifist daughter of a martyr it's understandable but what's wrong with some educated folks.” However, this led to a serious backlash with his tweet being tagged elitist.
4 / 7Director Madhur Bhandarkar opposed Javed's view by writing on Twitter that freedom of expression has nothing to do with education. He wrote, "I am a 6th fail student, still nobody can stop me from expressing my views.”
5 / 7Mocking Randeep Hooda, Pooja Bhatt wrote, "He who laughs last,laughs alone. Pick on someone your own size boys! This is so NOT cool!" She later added, "Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.” George Carlin"
6 / 7Kabir Khan said he feels angry about the way a 20-year-old was trolled and mocked. He said, "It is unbelievable that someone can issue such threats to a 20-year-old girl and get away with it. It’s criminal. The only way to counter this is to throw those guys in the jail.”
7 / 7Gurmehar Kaur, who took to the social media to attack the ABVP after the Ramjas College clash, said she was “saddened” that the issue had gained a political hue. The LSR student has left Delhi and pulled out of protest.
