A slew of personalities including Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Lilly Singh, Hrithik Roshan and Malaika Arora and many others have come out in support of actress Preity Zinta, who spoke about being harassed in a post on social media.
Preity on Saturday took to Instagram, where she talked about how an unknown woman ‘planted a big wet kiss’ next to her daughter Gia’s mouth and how a ‘handicapped man kept trying to stop’ her for money in Mumbai while the paparazzis found it funny, laughed and did not help.
Commenting on the post, actor Arjun Rampal said: “Next time give me a call will sort them out.”
Hrithik Roshan said: “Well done Pree.”
Malaika Arora wrote: “You said it out loud and clear.”
“Good on you for standing up for yourself. I know that can be hard. But it’s important and true,” wrote Lilly Singh.
Priyanka posted a shocked emojis.
On Saturday, Preity had shared a clip of a man in a wheelchair following and knocking on her car.
She captioned it: “Two events this week have left me a bit shaken. 1 regarding my daughter Gia-where a woman tried to take her photo. When we politely asked her not to, she walked away, then suddenly scooped my daughter in her arms & planted a big wet kiss next to her mouth & ran off saying what a cute baby. This woman lives in an elite building & happened to be in the garden where my kids were playing. If I wasn’t a celebrity I probably would have reacted badly but kept my cool as I didn’t want to make a scene.”
“U can see the 2nd incident here. I had a plane to catch & this handicapped man kept trying to stop me. Over the years he has harassed me for money & I have given it to him when I could. This time when he asked for money I said sorry today I have no cash, just a credit card. The lady with me gave him some money from her purse. He threw it back at her cuz it wasn’t enough & started getting aggressive. As u can see, he followed us for some time & got more aggressive.”
“The photographers found this incident funny. Instead of helping us they filmed & laughed. NO ONE told him not to follow the car or harass us as anyone could have got hurt. Had there been an accident, I would have been blamed. Me being a celebrity would have been questioned. Bollywood would have been blamed & a lot of negativity would have spread.”
“I think it’s high time people realise that I’m a human being first, then a mom & then a celebrity. I also don’t need to apologise for my success constantly & be bullied for it cuz I’ve worked very hard to get where I am,” she also said.
She added that she has an equal right like anyone else in this country to live the way she wants and urged everyone to think before judging and stop blaming celebrities for everything.
“Most importantly my children are NOT part of a package deal & are not meant to be preyed on so please leave my kids alone & don’t come to them for photos or touch/grab them. They are infants & need to be treated like infants, not celebrities,” added Preity.