We all know fandom culture is great and bragging and gushing about your favourite star is totally cool. What is DEFINITELY NOT cool is making rape and acid attack threats at someone for not knowing about your idol.
Actress Meera Chopra ( Priyanka Chopra’s cousin) of 1920 London and Section 375 fame, was recently on the receiving end of such vile gang rape, death and acid attack threats after an #AskMeera session with fans on Twitter went horribly wrong.
While commenting that Mahesh Babu was her favourite South actor, people asked her if she also liked Jr NTR. When the actress stated that she didn’t know the Telugu star NT Rama Rao Jr and wasn’t his fan, she was immediately flooded with abusive tweets about murder and rape from his offended fanbase.
“I didn’t know it was a crime to not be somebody’s fan,” says the actress.
Meera Chopra tagged the concerned actor, NTR Jr. on Twitter, urging him to not ignore her tweet and call out the undignified behaviour of his fan club!
The actress tweeted to the National Commission for Women for help about this cyber-bullying. In turn, Commission chairperson Rekha Sharma urged Telangana police to take up the matter.
Having tweeted screenshots of all the disgusting threats, the cyber crime police registered her case under Indian Penal Code’s sections 506 (criminal intimidation), and 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman) and section 67 of the Information Technology Act. Assistant Commissioner of Police K.V.N. Prasad said they are in the process of identifying the accused.
Grateful for their help, Meera Chopra thanked the National Commission for Women and Rekha Sharma for taking the required legal action against the fans.
The problem of fanatical fanboys cyber-bullying, slut shaming and making toxic threats to women is unfortunately widely prevalent. Though Meera Chopra has asked NTR Jr. to speak up against the actions of his fanbase, the actor has yet to comment.