On Saturday, Preity Zinta took to Instagram to share a strongly-worded note. The actor opened up about two incidents where she and her daughter were harassed.
In one instance, a woman took photos of her daughter and forcefully kissed her, and in the other, a man in a wheelchair harassed her for money and followed her car. The paparazzi filmed the second incident and laughed instead of helping, which the actor shared with a long note.
She also criticized the paparazzi for laughing and using her invasion of privacy as shareable content on social media.
Sharing the video on her Instagram, she wrote, "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 gotten hurt. Had there been an accident, I would have been blamed. My being a celebrity would have been questioned. Bollywood would have been blamed & a lot of negativity would have spread."
Take a look:
Zinta expressed her frustration at being constantly judged as a celebrity and reminded people that she is a human being and a mother first. She also called for her children's privacy to be respected and asked photographers to act with humanity and maturity instead of filming and laughing.
This incident is one of the umpteenth reminders that celebrities deserve to have their boundaries respected. Instead of treating celebrities as commodities to be photographed and harassed, their right to privacy should be acknowledged.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)