Director Rahul Ravindran recently announced that he is deleting X (formerly Twitter) from his phone after receiving abusive messages and death threats targeting his children amid the controversy surrounding his film The Girlfriend. The backlash escalated after several social media users linked the film to the Pune murder case, in which 26-year-old Ketan Agarwal was allegedly pushed off a cliff at Lohagad Fort by his fiancée, Siya Goyal, and her alleged boyfriend, Chetan Chaudhary.
Rahul Ravindran Quits X After Death Threats Against His Kids
As the online debate intensified, Rahul and his family became targets of personal attacks on social media. On June 30, the director wrote, “I was sitting and watching the Brazil v Japan game. I wanted to check a football-related Twitter account about something, and I opened this app. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of checking my notifications too. And I came across this tweet. I wish I hadn’t."
Describing his emotional reaction, he added, "I kept staring at it for a long time. I kept filling up with 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."
Rahul further admitted that he struggled to calm himself after reading the post. He explained that his usual response to anger is to tell himself to calm down, but this time he did not want to. He recalled that his "head was very hot," and he remained seated for a long time, staring at the game on the television without actually watching it. Gradually, his heart rate began to slow, eventually returning to some semblance of normalcy.
'I Am Done'
Rahul reflected, "Maybe I am overreacting. Maybe it's somehow my fault. Maybe my kids and I deserve this hate." But he quickly rejected those thoughts and concluded that he was done with the app. He explained that he had wanted to leave it for a long time but had stayed because it was his best source of sports news, particularly coverage of Indian sports beyond cricket. What ultimately convinced him to leave, however, was how the post had affected him.
