The beloved Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone was quite the topic of discussion this past weekend. Unfortunately, the attention was not because of her highly anticipated, English-language comedy Finding Fanny, which opened in the U.S. this past Friday. Instead it was about something completely unrelated: her cleavage.
It all began this past Sunday when the Times of India, a leading Indian newspaper, tweeted a photo taken of Padukone with the caption “OMG: Deepika Padukone’s cleavage show!” This was followed by a link to a slideshow of more pictures of the 28-year-old actress.
Now if the Times of India thought Padukone was simply going to ignore the tweet, they were very, very mistaken. Padukone wasted no time calling out the newspaper by discussing it’s content and lack of respect for women.
Supposedly India’s ‘LEADING’ newspaper and this is ‘NEWS’!!?? pic.twitter.com/D3wiVVXuyM
– Finding Fanny (@deepikapadukone) September 14, 2014
YES!I am a Woman.I have breasts AND a cleavage! You got a problem!!?? – Finding Fanny (@deepikapadukone) September 14, 2014
Dont talk about Woman’s Empowerment when YOU don’t know how to RESPECT Women!
– Finding Fanny (@deepikapadukone) September 14, 2014
The Times of India responded to the actress by insisting that they only meant to compliment her. They tweeted at her saying, “You look so great that we want to make sure everyone knew! :)”
In return, this fueled the anger of her fans who pointed out that when men catcall and objectify women, it’s not a compliment. Fans were so riled up that the hashtag #IStandWithDeepikaPadukone was trending in India. A number of other stars stood with Padukone and applauded her for speaking up. Among them was Audrey cover girl, Priyanka Chopra.
Well done @deepikapadukone ! Taken a stand for all of us. Xoxo – PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) September 14, 2014
We have hit a new low today…forget complimenting a woman have the ability to respect a woman first…
– Arjun Kapoor (@arjunk26) September 14, 2014
Appalled….shocked and disgusted at the level of disrespect shown..Deepika or any women in the world cannot and should not stand for this!! – Karan Johar (@karanjohar) September 14, 2014
I just read here in Malaysia about @deepikapadukone retort to cheap sensational journalism,well done girl.
– arjun rampal (@rampalarjun) September 15, 2014
So the TOI has done something crude and classless again! I’m not surprised. I stopped subscribing to it years ago. – gaurav kapur (@gauravkapur) September 14, 2014
After much controversy, the Times of India has taken down the tweet as well as the tweets related to it.
