Vijay in Theri
A picture of Ilayathalapathy Vijay in Theri.PR Handout

Vijay has sent a message to his fans not to abuse women while claiming that people have the right to criticise a film. His reaction comes after a woman journalist was trolled with demeaning posts by his fans on social media for making negative comments on his movies.

In a press release, Vijay said that he respects women the most in the society and no one should post disgraceful comments about women under any circumstance. Ilayathalapathy requested his fans not make distasteful comments about women on social media.

It was all started after journalist Dhanya Rajendran tweeted about her views on Shah Rukh Khan's Jab Harry Met Sejal and drew a comparison with Vijay's Sura. This negative comment did not go down well with them and they started venting out their anger against her views in offensive language.

The crazy fans dug deep to find out her earlier criticism of the actor and harassed her for the next few days from giving rape threats to dragging her family members. After receiving over 75,000 abusive tweets in a span of 72 hours, she filed a complaint with Chennai Police under sections of Indian Penal Code, Information Technology Act, Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Woman Harassment Act and Indecent Representation of Women Act.

"FIR filed. I may have done a lot of things you don't like or do not appreciate. You don't like my stories, jokes or plain stupid stuff I did. Criticise me, question my ethics... But please never use that to support abuse and sexual threats in any way. By doing that, we strengthen anonymous mobs. Yesterday was tough. Cops wanted us to give them the worst tweets. Reading thru it was a horrible experience. When I left the station, I thought of the trauma that actual sexual violence victims go thru. Mine is nothing compared to that. I am very very very thankful to a bunch of friends and my family. Thank you. [sic]" Dhanya Rajendran posted on Facebook after filing the case.