Pankaj Tripathi compelled to join Instagram after fake handle's post lands him in trouble
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; November 18, 2019)

Fans of Pankaj Tripathi were surprised when he joined Instagram over the weekend. But the actor says the move was borne out of sheer necessity. "There were umpteen fake accounts under my name. [Things came to a head when] one of the accounts posted an inappropriate picture that was picked up by portals," recounts Tripathi, referring to a picture that saw him pose with Vicky Kaushal, Rajkummar Rao and Manoj Bajpayee.

The caption — that alluded to them being the new-age actors of Bollywood — created a furore on social media, with users trolling him for not including female actors in the self-proclaimed esteemed bracket. "That picture became a news item, much to my dismay. I couldn't report the fake account because I wasn't on Instagram," he says, adding that the episode stayed on his mind for months and led him to open a verified account.