Ivanka Das comes out in support of Pranshu; shares facing similar trolling: People call me prostitute
Ivanka Das took to her Insta and expressed her anger, questioning people “why did they kill the young artist”
After Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju, Haddi and Gulmohar actor Ivanka Das has come out to demand justice for Pranshu. The 16-year-old queer artist from Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain died by suicide following thousands of hate comments on an Instagram reel that he posted. Das took to her Insta and expressed her anger, questioning people “why did they kill the young artist.”
Now while talking to her, the actor shares that she can feel the pain at a very personal level because she has been facing similar issues for years now. “While trolling is an issue being faced by everyone nowadays, the level at which the people of LGBTQ+ community are trolled is something else. Sometimes the comments are so harsh that they end up giving us trauma. Though I am very careful about what I post on social media, I deal with it (trolling) on daily basis. During instagram lives or in my DMs, people go to the extent of calling me a prostitute. They write things like ‘she is a sex worker’. They question me about my private life and about me ability to become a mother, about my appearance, my surgeries and more. They abuse me in the most pathetic way. There have been several moments when I felt weak and wanted to end my life,” shares Das.
And it’s not that the actor has not tried to deal with it. She tells us, “While I try and avoid it most of the times, there have been incidents when I tried to file a complaint in Meta and the response was ‘We are sorry but we could not find anything wrong in this comment. Many from my community go through this every day.’”
Das says everyone has a battle that they are fighting and such criticism from the outside world makes it impossible to continue living. Further bringing forth the plight of Pranshu, Das shares, “His father passed away at a young age and I could relate to him because I also lost my parents even before I turned 18. I know what he was trying to do - finding peace in creating content... keeping himself busy with social media... or may be trying to help him mom financially. There is a lot about someone’s life that we are not aware of.”
Pointing out to the disturbed mental state of Pranshu, she says, “I know he was making use of the social media platform for growth, but he was very young to deal with all the negativity around. While he was struggling with the outside world, social media affected his mental health even more. I was seeing his videos and he was unable to make eye contact with the camera. It’s very evident that he was struggling to share his thoughts or express himself because of people’s judgements.”
Now, the actor is seeking support for more queer people like Pranshu and want the issues he was facing to be dealt with utmost seriousness. “I feel there should be an age bracket when it comes to using social media. And if that’s not possible, cyber bullying needs to be dealt with more seriously. There should be a grave punishment for a crime like this because its consequences are very serious. You cannot let the trolls live in peace while the community continues to suffer,” she ends.