Film critic Rajeev Masand’s Newcomers Roundtable 2019 saw a panel of debutantes who made the cut in the previous year with their scintillating performances onscreen, and those who will be venturing in the near future. The group comprised of actors like Tara Sutaria, Vishal Jethwa, Ananya Panday, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Abhimanyu Dassani, Saloni Batra and Geetika Vidya.
While the headlines that took spotlight were of Siddhant taking a dig at Ananya defending nepotism, and equating struggle to appearing in a Dharma film or Koffee with Karan, it was Geetika’s subtle way of incorporating the sensitive issued gripping out country that won the internet.
Geetika has been lauded by netizens for speaking out on the Unnao rape case and the Citizenship Amendment Act protests. The Soni actress, during the roundtable showed her palms with the words, ‘Unnao’, ‘CAA’ and ‘Jamia’ written on them.
Here are some of the reactions on Twitter.
Since the episode was recorded on the day the Unnao verdict was to be pronounced, Geetika said, “We hope we don’t get disappointed more by the Unnao verdict. We hope that the times improve.” As for CAA protests, she said, “I hope we are kinder towards each other.”