Director and actor Rahul Ravindran announced he is deleting X (formerly Twitter) after receiving abusive messages and death threats. The online attacks started during a debate related to the death of Ketan Agarwal murder case.
Rahul Ravindran opens up about the abuse
Sharing about his decision, ‘The Girlfriend’ director shared that he wanted to leave the X platform for a long time but he continued using it as it is a good place to follow sports especially Indian sports beyond cricket. However, while watching a game of the ongoing FIFA World Cup, Brazil vs Japan fixture he wanted to check a football related account. Instead he clicked on a notification. He mentioned, “Unfortunately, I made the mistake of checking my notifications too. And I came across this tweet. I wish I hadn’t.”The ‘Jigra’ actor said the comments filled him with anger and affected him deeply. He explained that reading those messages changed his mood and emotions in a way that made him uncomfortable.
What Rahul Ravindran felt after reading the comment
He wrote, “I kept staring at it for a long time. I kept filling up with a rage. I wanted to track this guy down and do unspeakable things to him. The urge was very real. I was, involuntarily, vividly imagining scenarios in my head. My usual response to anger is to tell myself to calm down. But I didn’t want to this time. My head was very hot. A long time passed just sitting there and staring at the game on T. V without watching it. Very slowly my heart rate returned to some semblance of normalcy.”He added, “I didn’t like the guy” he became after reading the posts. He said he did not want any social media platform to have that kind of control over his feelings.Rahul Ravindran also wrote, “Maybe I am overreacting. Maybe it’s somehow my fault maybe my kids and I deserve this hate.” Even after saying that, he confirmed that he was deleting the app from his phone.
About the issue
For the unversed, the issue began when an X user asked Rahul Ravindran if would make a film on “atrocities against men” since he had directed Rashmika Mandanna starrer ‘The Girlfriend’. Rahul replied that society is inherently patriarchal. His response led to a heated debate on social media. Soon, he and his family became targets of personal attacks.
