Actor Arjun Kapoor’s Instagram post made fans and trolls alike sit up and take notice on Tuesday. The 40-year-old wrote an emotional birthday message for his late mother, Mona Kapoor. But the lines that caught social media users’ eyes are: “Life’s been kinda cruel to me lately... We will ride it out together. I’ll see u again soon.”

A 2017 video of Arjun’s ‘blank stare’ at a press conference resurfaced. What started as harmless fun around a funny video soon turned nasty. Arjun’s Instagram posts and Reels were flooded by comments that blurred the line between criticism and bullying, often rage baiting responses and farming engagement. Messages included: ‘God blast you’, ‘You are the reason I believe in failure’, ‘Aap bahut peeche jaaoge’, ‘Arjun the superzero’, and ‘Always give up’, among others. But now, the commenters have changed their tune.

Arjun’s new post saw an outpouring of love. Actor Genelia Deshmukh commented, “All will be good, Arjun. You have your own special angel always looking after you.” Others shared strings of heart emojis.

Bhumi Pednekar, Arjun’s co-star in his last screen outing Mere Husband Ki Biwi (2025), says trolling is synonymous with bullying: “What’s frightening is how easily we’ve begun to accept trolling as normal behaviour. The internet forgets that there is a human being they are referring to and not a bot.”

His father Boney Kapoor says, “All the trolling will make Arjun stronger in his resolve. Nothing of this sort will deter him. He’s a brave and sensible boy.”

We reached out to Arjun about his post, but received no response till the time of going to press.

The Right Angle with Sonal Kalra was the first to question the behaviour of trolls, urging commenters to show more empathy, compassion and respect towards the actor. The Reel clocked 2 million views, nearly 94k likes and over 5k comments, including reactions from celebrities Varun Dhawan, Rakul Preet Singh, Vaani Kapoor and Neil Nitin Mukesh, to name a few