Salman Khan is, unarguably, the biggest actor of Bollywood. No one wants to mess with Bhai. Though his last few films like Tubelight and Race 3 have fared badly at the box office, Salman continues to dominate. Looks like singer Sona Mahapatra is unaffected by Salman Khan and his aura as the singer has been calling out Salman Khan for his sexist comments against the Baywatch star Priyanka Chopra in an interview. Despite facing backlash on social media for her statements, Sona stands by her statement.
During the promotions of Bharat, on occasion, we saw Salman addressing Priyanka Chopra who was supposed to do the film but walked out of it at the last minute. While we all kept wondering as to why PeeCee opted out of the film, Priyanka’s marriage to beau Nick Jonas was called out as one of the reason. Later in interviews, Salman confirmed that Priyanka chose Nick over his film and looks like this act didn’t go well with the actor. While Priyanka has been mum over the issue, Sona chose to respond on behalf of the actor and expressed her opinion over Twitter and opened a can of worms.
Post her comment against Salman Khan, the singer faced heavy criticism on social media and she even received death threats from the fans. We reached out to the singer where Sona didn’t shy away in bashing Salman Khan. “To start with Salman Khan and his team, maybe they are making a fool of us. They count on the fact that you people (media) will put the release date of his film and they will blow up his toxic masculine messaging like they did last time and it will only benefit their film only. They will take his real-life misogyny and use it to their advantage because they count on the fact that a large part of the country is ok with his behaviour. The women he is putting down also seem to be ok. So somewhere, you know, I am wondering if we are playing to their tunes to celebrate toxicity and in a sense benefit them only. He was asked in a chat show what alternate career Katrina should have if not an actress, he said a housewife and produce kids. If a similar question was asked to Shah Rukh Khan or Amir Khan, they would have a brilliant answer but Salman is a hardcore misogynist. He gets away in media, he gets away all the time. Alia Bhatt, who is a fantastic actor also, in his eyes, doesn’t have any great value. Even Priyanka doesn’t despite the fact that she has carved her way around the world.”
Despite facing criticism, Sona said she will call out Salman every time for his wrongdoings. “I will call him out every time. I am being trolled, I have been getting nasty messages of being an attention seeker. The truth is that I am consistent in my stand. I am not just waking up today and I am raising my point. I feel somewhere the wall will break and hope this time around. 90% of the response has been in support and positive and not just negative trolling.”
“We normalise his bad behaviour and assume he is normal and in the process ignore good people. People who highlight his (Salman’s) bad behaviour are criticised. Every media report has ended with the bottom line of his film Bharat releasing on June 5 - like you are publicising his film. You are giving him exactly what he wants. He will put down Katrina, he will take a dig at Priyanka, he will comment on anything and everything. These are examples of serial misbehaviour. He can be called the champion of misbehaviour but we let him go.” she added.
When asked if she doesn’t fear for taking her stand against the biggest actor of Bollywood, Sona said she doesn't fear anyone and instead believes in hard work. “Everyone here is selfish and everyone’s just trying to make the most out of the situation here. I don't think anybody cares to tell me anything. This industry from far seems like one big happy family where people talk to each other and gel up but that’s not the fact. It is business at the end of the day, it’s the money to be made, let me be honest. People around me keep informing me about all such incidents but I am very hard working. Arijit Singh is a bigger superstar than Salman as he possesses bigger talent than him. Arijit is pure talent and Salman is a family insider. I don’t know why he had to apologise to Salman Khan which I felt it was not needed. Priyanka was being put out of work, she went and found her work in Hollywood. We, women, know how to find work. You don’t become great by gifting someone watches in the gym or by lending someone protein shake or by floating an NGO to be called a good human being to cover up for your actual misdeeds.”
We wonder what Salman Khan has to say.
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