Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty’s husband and businessman Raj Kundra has been in the news for some days now. Raj was arrested by Mumbai’s Crime Branch on July 19 for allegedly creating and publishing pornographic content on his app, Hotshots. Raj is currently in judicial custody.
Shilpa, who hasn’t yet reacted to the controversy, recently shared a post urging viewers to watch her comeback film, Hungama 2. The actress stressed that the film is an effort of the entire crew and that it shouldn’t suffer because of the row.
Amidst the entire controversy, only a few celebrities have spoken up to back Shilpa, who is facing the heat after her husband’s arrest.
Filmmaker Hansal Mehta is the latest celebrity to pen tweets in Shilpa’s defence. In a series of three tweets, the filmmaker urged netizens to “leave Shilpa Shetty alone”. In the first tweet, Mehta wrote, “If you cannot stand up for her at least leave Shilpa Shetty alone and let the law decide? Allow her some dignity and privacy. It is unfortunate that people in public life ultimately are left to fend for themselves and are proclaimed guilty even before justice is meted out.”
His second tweet in the thread read, “This silence is a pattern. In good times everybody parties together. In bad times there is deafening silence. There is isolation. No matter what the ultimate truth the damage is already done.”
Mehta’s third tweet said that this vilification is a pattern. “If the allegations are against a film person there is a rush to invade privacy, to pass sweeping judgment, to character-assassinate, to fill ‘news’ with trashy gossip – all at the cost of individuals and their dignity. This is the cost of silence.
Mehta isn’t the only celebrity who has talked about this in public. Hungama 2 producer Ratan Jain also backed Shilpa amid the row and said that she wouldn’t do something like this. Speaking to ETimes, Jain had said, “As much as I know Shilpa, she will not do something like that at all. I can’t really say, how much did she really know about her husband’s business, but I don’t think she was involved in it. Any family person should not do this kind of work and jitna main Shilpa ko jaanta hoon woh aisa kaam nahi karegi.” He also added that one has to leave it to the investigating agencies to do their job.
Actress Richa Chadha also backed in a tweet earlier today. Reacting to Mehta’s thread, Richa wrote, “We’ve made a national sport out of blaming women for the mistakes of the men in their lives. Glad she’s suing.”
Actress and model Gehana Vasisth, who has been accused in the same case, released a statement on the said case. A part of it read, “The law will take its course. We have full faith in Mumbai police, but they should not mix up porn with erotica or bold content. We have always said that Mumbai police is the best force in the world. The courts will eventually decide during trial as to who are the real culprits and which of the arrested accused were merely used, by others (sic).” She also said that neither she nor Raj were involved in making porn films