Exclusive - Madhura Naik on why she put up a 'bikini pic for creeps’: My inbox is full of such disgusting messages

Kasautii Zindagii Kay 2 fame Madhura Naik posted a caricature of herself sporting a bikini on social media recently with the caption: For all those CREEPS who keep asking me for bikini posts on my Instagram! Here it is. ETimes TV got in touch with the actress exclusively and she spoke to us about what made her post such a pic. In a free-wheeling chat Madhura got talking about all things social media – right from cyber-bullying to getting trolled and more. Excerpts:

I was actually out with my cousins at a cousin’s place. A friend of mine from Israel sent me this cartoon/graphic (caricature) picture of myself in a bikini. As soon as I saw this, I thought I have to post it. My DMs and inbox are full of such messages from creeps. I don’t react to such messages, I don’t read them. So, I just wanted to put out this bikini picture for all of them. I get so many such messages and I get so disgusted by the people and what they write. Sometimes it makes me feel that had they been face-to-face, would they still say such things.

There are so many such messages, it’s not even funny. Some of them are really disrespectful, some are outright weird. As a celebrity, a public figure, we are always exposed to such things. Everyone deals with it differently.

It doesn’t affect me mentally but it just makes me think what if this person was in front of me. Would that person have the courage to say the same thing on my face that he has been writing to me personally? Hiding behind the phone is a very easy thing to do. It’s for cowards.

Yes, of course! I do feel that instead of blocking the profile or deleting a comment, you should go and report the person. We are given a report button and when you report such accounts, it goes into the algorithm of the social media platforms. I am sure they will take the desired action against them. Nobody has the time to go to the cyber police and complain, but if there is an option to report online…you should do that. We are not very pro in terms of cybercrime yet in India but I feel there are ways to deal with it.

I have only faced hate comments when I shared my political views. For instance, something that recently happened between Israel and Palestine… I have a few friends in Palestine, who sent me pictures and I felt very sad. It was the day of Eid. So, I made a post and got such a backlash on my Instagram. A lot of people have a lot of views and they write these hate comments. And sometimes you need to write back to them as I have the liberty to have my own views, which doesn’t align with yours.

Once I got trolled for going out fishing with my cousins. I just sit back, read the comments and laugh it out. So there are vegetarians and non-vegetarians. The place I come from and have been brought up, fishing has been considered a sport. We don’t kill the fish. We do it for fun. We catch a fish, unhook it and put it back in the water. I have a cat…so I caught a fish, clicked a picture. So maybe it hurt the sentiments of some people in Indian, who abstain from eating non-veg. I didn’t know how to react. Maybe I was insensitive but I can’t say I am sorry for it. The kind of upbringing I have had, I have always thought of it as a sport. It is very difficult to condition my mind to think of something else.

Honestly, I don’t think so. If I start thinking or filtering out my thoughts, become calculative then it’s not gonna be me. I will become a fake person… a made up person for people on Instagram. I don’t shy away from being who I am.

A lot of people, my friends I have seen, think before posting. Recently, an actor friend of mine… we were dining at his farmhouse and I just wanted to post a picture. He also wanted to post a picture but said, ‘I don’t want to post it right now’. When I asked why, he said, ‘In the times of Corona, if we post a happy picture people will think we are having fun while others are suffering.’ I don’t see it like that. Everyone has suffered. Sometimes we post a happy picture because we want to spread happiness. When everybody is going through a tough phase, you just can’t keep posting negative things. At Least someone will get motivated seeing your happy post. I don’t believe in filtering out. Many celebs did get thrashed and bashed for their vacation pictures but not everyone knows what goes on behind the camera. People should just look at the happy moments.