'My mother's death became a meme': Janhvi Kapoor slams voyeuristic media culture, cites speculations around Dharmendra

Mumbai: Actor Janhvi Kapoor has criticised the "voyeuristic nature" of media culture where even death gets dehumanised, something that she experienced after the death of her mother and more recently with veteran actor Dharmendra.

Speaking at the We The Women 2025 event on Sunday, Janhvi said media, especially social media, has "single handedly contributed to the complete derailment of human morality".

"The voyeuristic nature of journalism, of media culture, of social media today, has single handedly contributed to the complete derailment of human morality, and I'm seeing it more and more every day.

"It was horrible when I lost my mom. I don't know if you all can imagine what it's like to lose someone that close to you and see it become a meme. I don't even know how to compute or explain it, but it's just gotten worse," the actor told senior journalist Barkha Dutt.

Janhvi said she avoids talking about her mother, renowned actor Sridevi's death publicly, as she fears that people will think she’s using it to grab headlines. Sridevi died on February 24 in 2018 at the age of 54.

"I think the feeling and the phase that I went through during that time is something I'll never be able to verbalise. And I think that it was such an individual experience that even if I told you all everything about it... I don't know if any of you all would ever be able to relate to it, and I'm always conscious about sounding like I'm saying things to get you all to feel bad for me.

"And so I always refrain a little bit because I know everyone is opportunistic in nature, and everyone just wants a headline. And I would hate if I ever sounded like I was using such a painful part of my life and my relationship with my mother for a headline, so I think that always holds me back," she added.

She also referred to the false media reports about veteran actor Dharmendra's death on November 11. The Sholay star died on November 24 at the age of 89.

"We saw what happened with Dharamji and it's happened repeatedly before that. I'm sure it will only get worse," Janhvi said, adding that celebrities are equally responsible for the problem.

"I think we are part of the problem. I think every time we give videos, headlines or narratives... like views, comments, likes, every time we look for something like that, we are incentivising this culture," she said.

Janhvi said "human morality is in shambles" and it is nothing but "depressing".

"I think earlier we had a consciousness in us that stopped us from seeing certain things, saying certain things, indulging in certain practices, but that's out of the window, and it's disgusting.

"This is the modern-day crisis that we've lost our morality as a result of how voyeuristic everything has become. Someone dies somewhere, some horrible attack somewhere, you kind of want to see the things that you shouldn't see, and it gives you the strange feeling of... I guess it's that same horrible feeling of satisfaction that sometimes you get when you gossip, but it's been encouraged so much through social media," she said.