Arjun Kapoor’s reaction to trolls: ‘People don’t spare even Virat Kohli and our honourable Prime Minister’

Taking trolls head on, Arjun Kapoor says people nowadays ‘find happiness by putting others down’; adds social media chatter doesn’t affect films’ business.

Nowadays, modern-day actors/filmmakers – unlike yesteryear – are forced to contend with a new challenge of sorts – trolls. And Arjun Kapoor is no different. But the actor refuses to lose sleep over it, as he feels it has become the order of the day.

Arjun Kapoor just saw the release of his period drama, Panipat. (IANS)

“People don’t spare even Virat Kohli [Indian cricket team captain], our honourable Prime Minister [Narendra Modi], or for that matter, anyone else. Everyone is now a source of humour for people. I guess that’s just the way the world has become. I feel now people find happiness by putting others down. They feel better about their lives instead of doing better with their lives,” says the actor.

Although a section of people/experts feel that trolls, in a way, impact a film’s commercial prospects, Arjun doesn’t believe so. “Social media is, anyway, not real. In the past one year itself, we have seen that if a film got a large amount of [positive] chatter on social media, it didn’t contribute to its box office results. Likewise, the amount of negative chatter some films got, didn’t affect their prospects,” says the actor, who was trolled with memes etc. when his latest film, Panipat’s trailer came out.

The actor further adds, “I strongly believe that social media has a very segregated amount of people. They aren’t true cine-goers per se. I don’t think film-going audiences participate in a large number on social media. They are very different kind of people. By now, we are all part of social media. And we know that we can’t take it so seriously that we lose sleep over it.”

A few days back, Arjun shared a hand-written poem – which he wrote to his late mother, Mona Kapoor as a kid – with fans on his social media accounts. “There are so many things that I would want to share with her but I just can’t. So, instead, I share it with the world thinking that maybe, wherever mum is, she reads it, sees it or feels it,” says the actor, pointing out his personal connection with filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker and his 2001 hit, Lagaan.

“As an actor, when you make a list of things you want to achieve, you are like, ‘period film karunga.’ Also, Ashu sir made Lagaan, and mum had loved it. So, she would have been happy and loved the fact that I just worked with him. Or that I am now teaming up with a female director [Kaashvie Nair on his next co-starring Rakul Preet Singh]. The day I posted the letter, I was shooting for Panipat, and felt that mum would have loved the story. So, I put up the post with my poem that Anshula [Kapoor; sister] had shared with me that day itself,” he says.

“Sometimes, when you showcase just happiness, people don’t connect that much with you. But I realised that day [when I posted the poem] that like me, there are many who have been through a similar experience. And they all connected with me. So at times, grief can make people connect. Aur thoda halkapan bhi mehsoos hota hai that you are able to share your story, because usually, sadness sunne ka time toh kisi ke paas nahi hai. If I share my sadness or grief, which can help someone feel a little lighter, then it’s good to be connected with emotions rather than behaving strong all the time.”

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