Deepika accused of charging INR50 m to attend JNU protest

Fellow actor Swara Bhaskar has deemed the allegation against the star 'vulgar and outlandish'

Recent allegations against Deepika Padukone are claiming that the celebrity was paid INR50 million to attend the student protest at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)  in January this year.

A Twiiter user on Wednesday alleged that Padukone had charged INR50 million for her 2 minutes appearance to which popular actor Swara Bhaskar responded in the negative. She rubbished the claims calling them ‘vulgar and outlandish’. “The kind of idiotic misinformation that is peddled ceaselessly by RW about #Bollywood is partly why we as a public accept any kind of conspiracy theory - however vulgar and outlandish!" said Bhaskar. "A rampant culture of stupidity," she added.

However, another thing that may have triggered Bhaskar's response is the criticism her web series received. The user wrote, “Deepika Padukone took 5 crores for her 2 minute appearance in JNU for Anti-CAA protests while @ReallySwara could only manage a C-grade web series despite artistically screeching against CAA for a year. Bhagwan kisi ko depression de de lekin communism na de (May God give anyone depression but not communism).”

The kind of idiotic misinformation that is peddled ceaselessly by RW about #Bollywood is partly why we as a public accept any kind of conspiracy theory- however vulgar and outlandish! A rampant culture of stupidity... https://t.co/Bsk0uyugTr

— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) July 29, 2020

On January 7, Padukone made a surprise visit to the JNU campus and quietly stood with the students in a show of solidarity. This was just three days before the release of Chhapaak, in which she played an acid attack survivor. She was also one of its co-producers.

After her show of solidarity with the JNU students, however, a #BoycottChhapaak campaign began trending on Twitter. The IMDb rating of the film also took a hit, with people downvoting it in large numbers and giving it a one-star rating.Later that month, at an event, Padukone gave out a clear message to her detractors. “Unhone meri IMDb rating badli hai, mera mann nahi (They have changed my IMDb rating, not my mind),” she said.

Bhaskar on the other hand is a JNU alumna, who joined the protest at the Gateway of India in Mumbai. Whereas other Bollywood celebrities including Taapsee Pannu, Richa Chadha, Dia Mirza, Vishal Bhardwaj, Anurag Kashyap and Zoya Akhtar also participated in the protest against the violent attack on students in the JNU campus.

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