00:00Your social media we all know is good and bad at the same time and I've never, I've
00:15actually stayed away from most of the controversies if you look at it and I've never been linked
00:19up unnecessarily.
00:20I mean it's not been there but lately this whole controversy that came up, it was just
00:25I've never hit back on a troll in the last six years of me being an actor.
00:29This was the first time and that also happened because I kind of woke up to that message
00:33you know and it was one of those days where just a day before I was at a book launch and
00:39it was about powerful women and the media was asking questions about what do you think
00:43about women equality, do you think Me Too has really helped and you're out there trying
00:48to say that you know we're going to make it happen and it's great, it's all good and women
00:53are great and the next day you wake up to this and there was just this flutter of thoughts
00:59in my head where I thought what are we talking for you know if I can't reply to this, I don't
01:04have the right to go and talk in interviews, I'm not going to because just a week before
01:09that I'd done like a India Today conclave so all those thoughts just started you know
01:16rushing through my head and I was like I need to give it back and I'll tell you, you know
01:21it was that so it wasn't Rakul the actor who replied it was Rakul the girl who replied so a
01:26lot of people spoke about my choice of words to which I had to say that I mean I agree I
01:31could have framed it better but then where then I would have been politically correct and I
01:35wouldn't have been me, the real me you know and my question to them is that if you're walking
01:39on the street and someone teases you or hits on your family are you going to say please don't
01:45do this, I'll come in front of you, no you're going to just react and my first instinct was
01:50that you know that I was just trying to give a taste of his own medicine.
01:55Yeah, it was self survival in some way.
01:58Forget about the self survival, I got disgusted at the thought, I thought that you know
02:01people like this who can openly on social media write something like this and that also to a
02:07celebrity, imagine they must be boasting with their friends, I've written this so these are
02:13the kind of people who turn out to be rapists tomorrow or you know sexually assault women
02:19and predators because will you and me ever write something or think something which is so
02:23disgusting, we won't right so there has to be something really mentally wrong with that
02:29person to do that and apparently Twitter told me later that that account has, he's shut his
02:35account down so at least that saves the trouble to so many more girls, at least two girls,
02:40three girls so my work's done, at least someone you know.
02:44That's always a good thing, I would say give it, accounts paid is a good thing.
02:47I mean if we can't, I think as we all say you know every girl needs to stand up for
02:51herself but then a celebrity you're told don't talk or as a girl don't talk because you need
02:56to be politically correct but then isn't that being incorrect because outside in papers I'm
03:02giving quotes that are a girl power and you know women should talk and I can't save my own self.
03:12Yes, Dev is releasing on Feb 14 Tamil movie and I was actually quite surprised in Dubai that
03:17there are a lot of Tamilians you know, our driver was and then he was mentioning about
03:22the film and then they screened a lot of films.
03:24It's coming out.
03:25Yes, so now Feb 14th is that, I'm excited about that then there's NGK with Surya sir
03:31which is in April which is also a Tamil film then May has De De Pyaar De with Ajay Devgn
03:38then I've got Marjama with Siddharth coming out in October which I'm shooting for right now.
03:48No, it's like how we speak Hindi-English, I switch from another language to another.
03:53I've learnt Telugu now, I speak Telugu as fluently as I speak Punjabi which is really surprising.
03:59Tamil I understand, I don't speak as well but I manage my lines because obviously I'm relatively
04:05newer in Tamil than in Telugu you know but yeah I think you can absolutely, I think where there's
04:11a desire to do something, you can.
04:14A lot of people feel, ask me if language is a barrier and I don't feel that any form of
04:20art is a barrier, you know language can ever be a barrier for any form of art.
04:25I just love being in front of the camera.
04:30No, but that, no I don't think so you know if you look at it, yeah if you look at it
04:36holistically there are so many actors who've done extremely well coming from the North.
04:41In fact, on the contrary I'd like to say that the South industry is very welcoming
04:46especially for North Indian girls. If you look at a Kajal or a Tammanna or so many of them you know
04:52and vice versa I mean Sridevi ji was from the South who made it to one of the biggest superstars
04:57and Tabu ma'am and so many of them so I think industry doesn't really function that way.
05:03What really matters is how passionate towards your work you are, how dedicated you are and
05:09one thing I'd like to say that in the South they really appreciate hard work.
05:13I think people really recognize if you're ready to work hard and then they appreciate because I
05:18was welcomed with open arms and I still say that, that I think that's the reason I feel at home in Telugu.
05:28A lot of people do, they think I'm a Punjabi who was born in Hyderabad.
05:33I'm like no, I am an army kid and I've been all over, all over the place, all over the country but yeah.
05:46You know I've spoken enough on Me Too, I did speak earlier on when it happened and
05:53and I can only talk from my experience you know. I'm not denying that it exists or it doesn't exist
05:59but for me it's been really good. Now having said that, I know that that it's very difficult to come
06:06out and my heart absolutely goes out to people who have shown the courage to come out and take
06:11names and it's not easy to do that because you know that you're going to not, you know everyone's
06:15going to try and push you down but I have been very lucky. I'd say that I did not face it and
06:24also somewhere I believe that I was also the kind of person may whether call it my army
06:29upbringing or call it whatever where I didn't give too much importance to me not getting it.
06:36It wasn't a do or die for me you know so the way you, I was yeah I wasn't desperate and I feel
06:42and it's not about our industry you know let's not, let's not defame the industry. It's good people
06:50or bad people and it is an opportunist world you know anywhere somebody sees that well they can
06:55make use of it or they can you know so they will try and do it, isn't it? Even in villages you go
07:02anywhere you know like a person or trader it's a power play, it's a trader, a farmer they'll all
07:07try to make everybody's here for survival so it's how much your desperation comes across is how
07:14people are going to try and you know put you down and and kind of sexually assault you but
07:21but I'm glad that this movement happened and it's hopefully going to turn out into a safer
07:28place for women and I just hope that it doesn't dilute.
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