Pooja Hegde calls out negative PR campaigns in Bollywood

Actress Pooja Hegde has called out the rampant use of negative PR and targeted trolling in Bollywood, revealing how certain celebrities spend lakhs of rupees to undermine and demoralise those they see as a threat to their careers.

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A target of negative campaigns

Hegde shared how she became a victim of such malicious campaigns and the toll it took on her mental health and family. The actress made her Bollywood debut in 2016 with Mohenjo Daro, starring opposite Hrithik Roshan.

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Opening up about online targeting

In an interview with Filmfare, Hegde spoke candidly about her experiences with negative PR campaigns, saying:

“Many times, and to me, it was a shock. The one thing I’m really bad at is PR. I remember there was a time when I was constantly getting trolled by meme pages, and I was like, why are they constantly talking negatively about me? It looked targeted. People are spending a lot of money on pulling down other people.”

She admitted that while these campaigns initially affected her, she soon saw them as a compliment to her success. However, the negativity worried her family, prompting her and her team to investigate further.

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Confronting the trolls

Hegde revealed that her team reached out to the meme pages behind the trolling to understand the motivation. She explained:

“I told my team to connect with the meme pages and ask them what the problem was. And they said, ‘This is how much they are paying us. If you’d like to stop it or troll them back, this is the amount.’ To me, it was just bizarre.”

Upcoming Projects

Despite the online negativity, Pooja Hegde’s career remains strong. She recently appeared in Mumbai Police alongside Shahid Kapoor and is set to play the lead role opposite Suriya in the upcoming Tamil gangster film Retro. She will also make a cameo in Rajinikanth’s upcoming Coolie.

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