Divya Kaushik (BOMBAY TIMES; May 22, 2019)

After making headlines over the delay of his upcoming film on PM Modi, Vivek Anand Oberoi has again landed in a controversy. On Monday, the actor retweeted a meme which promptly blew up in his face. The meme had a picture of Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan titled ‘opinion poll’, followed by a Vivek and Aishwarya’s picture titled ‘exit poll’ and finally, a picture of Aishwarya with Abhishek and daughter Aaradhya titled ‘result.’ “Haha! Creative! No politics here…just life,” the actor wrote with the tweet. But it was deemed ‘offensive’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘misogynistic’ by many, including Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Madhur Bhandarkar and Hansal Mehta. He even got a notice from the National Commission for Women (NCW).

Following this backlash, Vivek deleted the meme on Tuesday morning and tweeted, “Sometimes what appears to be funny and harmless at first glance to one, may not be so to others. I have spent the last 10 years empowering more than 2,000 underprivileged girls, I can’t even think of being disrespectful to any woman ever. Even if one woman is offended by my reply to the meme, it calls for remedial action. Apologies tweet deleted.”

Before deleting the tweet, on Monday evening, Vivek attended the screening of PM Modi’s biopic in Delhi. When he was asked if he would apologise for the tweet, he said, “I am still trying to understand what is it that people are objecting to. Someone created a meme on me and sent it to me. There are various memes created and I often laugh at them and I also laughed at this one and said that this is life. I don’t know why we are getting back to the regressive era of the 1920s. Everyone has a past, but all those who are public figures, their lives are in the public domain. Everyone keeps talking about actors’ affairs, break-ups, etc. All I am saying is that someone sent me a meme, I laughed at it and replied. I didn’t use any offensive word, didn’t abuse anyone, didn’t use any obscene picture. The meme has a beautiful family picture with Abhishek, Aishwarya and Aaradhya and I have only blessings and good wishes for them.”

On Monday, the NCW issued a notice to the actor seeking an explanation for his tweet. “We would like him to apologise on social media and personally also to the person concerned. If he doesn’t, we will see what legal action we can take against him,” Rekha Sharma, NCW chairperson, was quoted as saying. At the screening, when the actor was asked if he is going to apologise to the NCW, he said, “I would like to meet women’s commission. I have been working for women’s empowerment for the last 10 years. I am not someone who promotes women empowerment just on Twitter. In the last 10 years, I have helped with the rescue, education and well-being of around 2,200 girls, who were from abusive backgrounds. All these are facts and are well documented. So as far as respecting women is concerned, I am very careful. I personally feel there is nothing disrespectful about the tweet and I will meet the women’s commission. If they can explain to me what is wrong with the tweet, I will apologise to them.”

About facing backlash from the film industry, Vivek said, “To all other people I would say why make this so big?” Reacting to Sonam’s tweet, he said, “Sometimes people write such things on Twitter to appear cool. I would like to ask Sonam what work has she done for women’s empowerment? I have been working on women empowerment since Sonam was working on her makeover. I would just tell Sonam, ‘I have a lot of respect and love for your father. But what you have written, to that I would like to give you a small advice. God bless you and wish you all the best in your career but please overact less on screen and overreact less on social media.’”