Netizens rise to Rashmika Mandanna’s support as Kannada comedy show skit pokes fun at her

Continuously bullying the actress is not right, they say

Rashmika Mandanna/Instagram

Ever since Rashmika Mandanna called off her engagement to Rakshit Shetty and then began focusing on building her career in other industries, there’s been a lot of negativity directed towards her, back home in Karnataka. Pogaru was Rashmika’s last film in Kannada and netizens often troll her for ‘supposedly forgetting her roots’, ignoring Kannada cinema, not speaking in Kannada, and so on and so forth.

Rashmika, of course, isn’t helping her cause, giving trolls fodder to chew on every now and then. For instance, in a recent interview, while discussing how she was approached by ‘a supposed production house’ after her pictures appeared in national English daily, the way she described the banner with air quotes was immediately picked up and discussed widely. Considering that Rashmika made her film debut with Kirik Party, which was jointly produced by leading man Rakshit Shetty’s Paramvah Studios and Pushkar Films, and was directed by the current flavour of the season, Rishab Shetty, her air quotes gesture was seen as a slight to Rakshit and Rishab.

Subsequently, during an interview with a Bollywood-centric online portal, Rishab was asked about the actresses he’d like to work with and was given a list that included Rashmika. He had also used air quotes to refer to some that he doesn’t want to collaborate with, while Samantha and Sai Pallavi would be his pick to work with. Video clips of both Rashmika’s quote and Rishab’s supposed response soon went viral.

The latest, though, is a skit on a comedy show on Zee5 Kannada, that was a direct attack on Rashmika. This time, though, some netizens have come to her support, saying that this continued bullying is not justified.

“This is very bad. This makes us look like insecure. Cheaply mocking her again and again has obviously made her dislike kannada cinema. Let’s be the superior ones and support our cinema stars but avoid bad mouthing others,” wrote a user.

Another added, “What is this disgusting bullying of a girl by so many people en mass… blaming her for her breakup and bullying and Trolling her every freakin day and expecting her to still be okay with all this is really stupid.”

“Worst. Zee kannada channel dinda E tara aa trolls,” said a third.

Share