Social media can be very unforgiving and Raveena Tandon learnt this the hard way out as she found herself at the eye of a controversy on Twitter. It was business as usual for the ’90s diva on Tuesday when a user by the name of Atiya Zaidi decided to ruffle some feathers from the past and accused Bollywood of dual standards on the issue of gender insensitivity.
The Twitter handle @atiyaz singled out Raveena Tandon by posting a screenshot of one of her tweets from the eve of the India-Pakistan World Cup cricket match in February. The 5-month-old tweet – a joke which the actress had liked and shared – was blown out of proportion by the user.
Here’s what @atiyaz posted:
How our ‘STARS’ endorse stereotypes/gender insensitivity. No wonder Fair & Lovely sells. @TandonRaveena cc @iamsrk pic.twitter.com/V6wFltwu3j
— atiya zaidi (@atiyaz) July 14, 2015
Caught unawares, Raveena soon found herself trending on Twitter. But it wasn’t all flak; she received a lot of mixed reactions.
@atiyaz Disgusting. Entertainment me liye much bhi karega, they truly live by that! @TandonRaveena
— Sidrah (@SidrahDP) July 14, 2015
@akarryan An Icon has to behave like an Icon @TandonRaveena @atiyaz @ravsd88
— Save India (@Save__India) July 14, 2015
@atiyaz then they come on tv shows for women empowerment. Except few,bwood is full of hypocrites like @TandonRaveena
— HummingBird (@sainiarun2) July 14, 2015
Comedienne Aditi Mittal tried to find some humour in the whole scenario:
@atiyaz may I venture that the most dangerous thing about Tandon’s comparison is not even the “comparing on the basis of looks” thing but…
— Aditi Mittal (@awryaditi) July 14, 2015
@atiyaz …the fact that she is making women the “reward” and “spoils” of a “war” (cricket game in this case) in the most primitive sense…
— Aditi Mittal (@awryaditi) July 14, 2015
@atiyaz ….or am I completely missing the point? And oh God. Talk regressive nonsense but please don’t be boring yaaaaa. Lolol.
— Aditi Mittal (@awryaditi) July 14, 2015
However, not one to sit as a silent bystander, Raveena quickly reminded everyone that it was just a joke.
@karunakarn @atiyaz And one should also have a sense of humour.. Life is too short to spend your time picking out other people’s faults…
— Raveena Tandon (@TandonRaveena) July 14, 2015
However, when people didn’t stop being nasty and decided to target Shah Rukh Khan as well, Raveena nipped the argument in the bud:
@RuchikaTalwar @atiyaz why tag @srk ?She wants his attention?or just didn’t have anyone else to troll today?That too over a forwarded joke
— Raveena Tandon (@TandonRaveena) July 14, 2015