Actor Vivek Oberoi is being savaged on social media and has also earned himself a notice from the National Commission of Women after sharing a meme equating election exit polls to his past relationship with actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Oberoi, who campaigned for the BJP earlier this month, is trending for more reason than one – his biopic of Narendra Modi, in which he stars, will release this Friday (votes in the Lok Sabha election will be counted on Thursday) after being forcibly pushed back from its original release date before polling began last month.
Vivek Oberoi’s tweet of the poster of the film, however, has been quickly eclipsed by the one with the meme which has gone viral. Actress Sonam Kapoor denounced Mr Oberoi’s tweet as ‘disgusting and classless.’ Her sentiments were shared by many on Twitter – #VivekOberoi, #Aishwarya and Oberoi are trending. Vivek Oberoi tweeted the meme with this endorsement: “Haha, creative. No politics here, just life.”
National Commission for Women issued a notice to Mr Oberoi for his tweet, reported news agency ANI. On Twitter, the backlash was instant and intense.
Replying to all these tweets, Vivek while talking to ANI said, “People are saying apologise, I have no problem in apologising, but tell me what wrong have I done? If I have done something wrong I will apologise. I don’t think I have done anything wrong. What’s wrong in it? Somebody tweeted a meme and I laughed at it”.
He further added, “Those in the meme don’t have a problem, but everyone else has. Kaam karne jaate hain nahi non-issues ke upar netagiri shuru kar dete hain. Didi put someone behind bars for a meme, people are I be put behind bars too. They couldn’t stop my film, now they are trying this”.