Bollywood actress Janhvi Kapoor has criticised what she described as the “voyeuristic nature” of contemporary media, saying the impulse to chase clicks has eroded basic human sensitivity, particularly around death.
Speaking at the We The Women 2025 event recently, Kapoor said media and social platforms have “single handedly contributed to the complete derailment of human morality”.
She cited her own experience following the death of her mother, actor Sridevi, and the recent speculation surrounding veteran actor Dharmendra.
“The voyeuristic nature of journalism, of media culture, of social media today, has single handedly contributed to the complete derailment of human morality, and I'm seeing it more and more every day,” she said in conversation with journalist Barkha Dutt.
“It was horrible when I lost my mom. I don't know if you all can imagine what it's like to lose someone that close to you and see it become a meme. I don't even know how to compute or explain it, but it's just gotten worse,” she added.
Kapoor said she avoids speaking publicly about Sridevi’s death, as she fears her comments might be construed as an attempt to generate attention. Sridevi died on 24 February, 2018, at the age of 54.
“I think the feeling and the phase that I went through during that time is something I'll never be able to verbalise… I’m always conscious about sounding like I'm saying things to get you all to feel bad for me,” she said. “I would hate if I ever sounded like I was using such a painful part of my life and my relationship with my mother for a headline.”
She also referred to the false reports on 11 November claiming that Dharmendra had died. The Sholay star passed away later on 24 November at the age of 89.
“We saw what happened with Dharamji and it's happened repeatedly before that. I'm sure it will only get worse,” Kapoor said, adding that celebrities themselves contribute to the ecosystem by engaging with content designed for virality. “I think we are part of the problem… every time we look for something like that, we are incentivising this culture.”
Kapoor said “human morality is in shambles” and called the situation “depressing”.
“I think earlier we had a consciousness in us that stopped us from seeing certain things, saying certain things, indulging in certain practices, but that's out of the window, and it's disgusting,” she said.
“This is the modern-day crisis… Someone dies somewhere, some horrible attack somewhere, you kind of want to see the things that you shouldn't see, and it gives you the strange feeling of… I guess it's that same horrible feeling of satisfaction that sometimes you get when you gossip, but it's been encouraged so much through social media,” Kapoor added.