Last week, Amala Paul posted a photograph of hers on her official Facebook page with text that sought to define her spirit in the face of adversity. “I survived because of the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me,” the popular South Indian actress wrote on her page.
The reader’s gaze, however, appears fixed on what she wore in the photograph – a transparent black top and shorts. In tune with the season’s spirit of social media morality, the post has unleashed vigilantes and trolls who are out to censure the actress for her “revealing” attire.
The post has had about 3,000 comments, many of them targeting her with varying degrees of intolerance – the commenters range from aggressive, abusive misogynists to “brothers” who take the stage for a lecture on culture and values.
Sample these – “We have a culture, sister. Dress according to that”, “Don’t you feel ashamed to call yourself a Malayali?”, “Posting photographs like this on social media will increase the number of rapes,” “Don’t defame women, sister. This is too much.”
Amala’s star break came with the 2010 Tamil hit Mynaa. The 25-year-old actor was noted for performances in films including Mili (2015) and has shared screen-space in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu with actors including Mohanlal, Vijay, Dhanush and Allu Arjun. She made her Kannada debut this year with Hebbuli opposite Sudeep.
There are also comments from men who are outraged at her “shameless” bonding with male friends “even after” her divorce (from Tamil filmmaker A L Vijay). The online hate which started since reports of her marital troubles emerged appear to have intensified with her latest Facebook post.
Amala is the latest female actor to be trolled for what she wore. Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, and Fatima Sana Shaikh were recently at the receiving end of a morality outrage on social media for their choice of clothes.
The comment trail does have voices of support for the actor. They deplore the critics for their overriding tone of chauvinism but appear to be losing out in a piling heap of hate.
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