Sona Mohapatra recalled receiving rape threats after she criticised actor Salman Khan ‘for his misogyny and statements’. Sona had spoken against Salman for taking digs at actor Priyanka Chopra for quitting his film, Bharat.
Salman had said that Priyanka left the ‘biggest film of her career’ to marry singer-actor Nick Jonas. “Usually people leave their husbands for this,” he had said in 2019. Sona then tweeted, “@priyankachopra has better things to do in life, real men to hang out with and more importantly, girls to inspire with her journey. ”
Speaking with ETimes, Sona said, “I had gone through the most hideous trolling, including death threats and literally shit being delivered in dabbas (lunch boxes) in my studio, because I had called out Salman Khan for his misogyny and statements. My statements had gone viral.” She added that it continued for two months and the Minister of Women and Child Welfare had to launch a campaign for better safety of women and children online. Sona further recalled her pics being morphed onto porn sites and receiving ‘gang rape threats’.
“It was horrible. And then we realised it was a consolidated digital army that was not necessarily just made up of fans. It further scared away women from being online. It was premeditated. There were a lot of paid bots that were in this whole game. I decided to take it up head on and it was horrible for my family. It was exhausting, and somedays Ram (Sampath, musician and her husband) would come back to the studio and I would be sobbing on my couch. You’ll see a lot of those swollen looks in my documentary, Shut Up Sona, because dealing with the constant trolling and the constant negativity was not easy. It’s not something I enjoy for sure. But it is still worth going through, because it does slowly change the conversations,” Sona said.
Earlier, Sona also criticised Salman when he compared himself to a ‘raped’ woman, while describing how he felt after the gruelling shoot of Sultan. Last year, she slammed him yet again after he requested his fans to support Sushant Singh Rajput’s fans and family.
Sona is currently gearing up for the release of her documentary, Shut up Sona. It releases July 1 on ZEE5. Sharing a video from the documentary recently, Sona wrote on Instagram, “#ShutUpSona is an unapologetic story of me refusing to SHUT UP and a #loveletter to a country which is sometimes uncomfortable with my voice. This film is also a window into the Indian music eco-system and its politics apart from being a showcase of my musical roots and inspirations. This is my call out to my sisterhood to own their own narrative and one to the brotherhood to become better allies.”
