As Bollywood writes an inspiring script on JNU protests with Anurag Kashyap and Deepika Padukone playing the leads, Twitterati takes sidesCelebs’ mann ki baat

Celebs, standing with students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, caught everyone’s attention as sentiments rode high after the campus violence that shook the nation on Sunday. From Anurag Kashyap’s no hold barred attack against the government, openly accusing the current government of dividing the country to Deepika Padukone’s visit to JNU made Twitter spring into action.

It was #BoycottChhapaak versus #ChhapakDekhoTapaakSe that trended on social media. As hashtags mushroomed from #HumDekhengeChhapaak to #ISupportDeepika, #IStandwithDeepika, #shameonbollywood #NameItLikeBollywood had as many takers.

Anurag Kashyap led the celebs’ protest with his candid interview questioning Modi-Shah’s manner of passing laws without a debate. Alleging the government of spreading ‘fear’, Kashyap took the PM to task for not listening to his ‘man ki baat’.

A true hero

Leapfrogging from the entertainment section to the front pages of newspapers for showing up at JNU, Bollywood star Deepika Padukone has been the cynosure of all eyes, earning bouquets as well as brickbats on social media and elsewhere. While BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj on Wednesday used unusually strong words against her, calling Padukone a part of the Tukde Tukde gang, many rallied behind the Chhapaak actor –producer. Though several people in Bollywood have voiced their protests against the attack on students and faculty by a masked mob, Deepika is the rare Bollywood A-lister to visit the university.

Anurag Kashyap said he has ‘mad respect’ for the actor and urged people to watch her upcoming film ‘first day all shows’. A day after Kashyap uploaded a cartoon of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in masks with lathis as his Twitter display picture, the director replaced it with a photo of Deepika standing in front of the JNUSU president in what appeared to be a folded hands gesture. “Let’s not forget she is also the producer of the film… stakes are even higher,” he added.

Swara Bhasker, who was one of the firsts from the film community to call for action against the perpetrators of Sunday violence, said “Bollywood just got JNU-ised! #LongLiveJNU #JNUProtests.” Director Vikramaditya Motwane called Deepika a ‘true hero’. “Deepika’s stand is going to make a lot of young people question their parents, their peers and their government. Hopefully, they will go out and educate themselves and not parrot everything authority tells them,” he said.

Veteran director-producer Mahesh Bhatt said, “We are a ‘kingdom’ of silence no longer!” Actor Sayani Gupta, who was one of the first stars from Bollywood to ask the actors, who took a selfie with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, to speak up, thanked Deepika for lending a ‘mainstream narrative’ to the movement. “For using your position to choose the correct path..! #WeAreWithJNU #noplaceforfascism,” Sayani said in a tweet.

Juhi Chaturvedi, the writer of the 2015 Deepika-starrer Piku, said the actor’s courage was ‘inspiring’. “You truly are incredible!” Juhi added. Her Chhapaak co-star Vikrant Massey also tweeted the viral pictures from JNU campus and said his heart ‘swells with pride’.

Many social media users called for the boycott of the social drama, asking people to watch Ajay Devgn’s Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior that faces off with Chhapaak on Friday.”#boycottchhapaak Thank you but no thank you @deepikapadukone – cancelled ticket of Chhapaak,” wrote a tweeple.

— TNS, Agencies