Pooja Hegde made her Bollywood debut with Hrithik Roshan starrer 'Mohenjo Daro' all the way back in 2016. While the film may not have done well at all box office-wise, she surely made a space for herself in the audience's hearts. Pooja was already a well-established star by the time Mohenjo Daro had happened for her, she was working extensively in the Tamil and Telegu film industry and had crafted a massive fan base for herself. Hence it was rather shocking when not very long from now she was constantly being trolled on social media. The actress very recently spoke about the same.
The 'Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo' actress was taken aback when she realised that all the trolling happening on social media was paid propaganda. In an interview with Filmfare, she opened up about realising that many a time, there are tactics in place and they are devised rather carefully to bring people down and malign actors. Pooja through her conversation shed light on the dark side of the entertainment industry and all that goes on.
While talking about how she had to face targeted trolling, Pooja said, "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. When I found out about it, my parents and I were very bothered. But I also took it as a compliment because if someone feels the need to pull you down, it means you are above them. I kept reassuring my parents that it was okay. But after a point, it became too much. I found out that people were spending lakhs just to troll me."
The actress was very keen on finding out who was making it all happen and, in fact, why it was happening to her, so she instructed her team to find out the source. When she figured that all this was nothing but a paid activity, she was taken aback. In the same conversation, she spoke about how paid bots work—an issue that the social media world is currently having to deal with.
Pooja said, "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. People believe such things but don't know why I'm being trolled or what the reason behind it is. Sometimes, I see a horrendous comment, go to the profile, and find that there's no display picture or any posts. These are just paid bots."
In terms of work, Pooja was last seen in 'Deva' opposite Shahid Kapoor and will next be seen in 'Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai' opposite Varun Dhawan. While 'Deva' did not have much success in terms of box office numbers, her fans are hopeful that the Varun Dhawan starrer commercial entertainer might do well.
