Actress Tamannaah Bhatia has responded to reports claiming she liked an Instagram reel in support of Deepika Padukone amid swirling controversy over the latter’s exit from Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s upcoming film Spirit.
“Can Instagram please figure out how it likes pages on its own cause random people are making this news and I really have work to do,” wrote Tamannaah, sharing a video of herself on Instagram Story Wednesday.
As per reports, Tamannaah had liked a reel that discusses how some women refuse to buy into certain narratives. The clip shows Deepika Padukone shutting down a reporter who asked her if Ranveer Singh had financially backed her production venture Chhapaak.
The reel is captioned, “Propaganda she is not falling for: Disrespect, men, sexism, gender pay gap, working overtime, unprofessionalism, misogyny, and double standards.”
Earlier this month, Indian cricketer Virat Kohli had found himself in the middle of a meme fest after he allegedly liked a photo of actress Avneet Kaur shared by a fan account. He attributed the issue to an algorithm mistake, aiming to dispel growing rumours on social media.
“I'd like to clarify that while clearing my feed, it appears the algorithm may have mistakenly registered an interaction. There was absolutely no intent behind it. I request that no unnecessary assumptions be made. Thank you for your understanding,” Kohli wrote on his Instagram Story.
Shortly after Triptii Dimri replaced Deepika as the female lead in Spirit, Vanga shared a cryptic post on X.
“When I narrate a story to an actor, I place 100% faith. There is an unsaid NDA(Non Disclosure Agreement) between us. But by doing this, you've 'DISCLOSED' the person that you are...Putting down a younger actor and ousting my story? Is this what your feminism stands for? As a filmmaker, I put years of hard work behind my craft & for me, filmmaking is everything. You didn't get it. You won't get it. You will never get it,” the 43-year-old filmmaker wrote on X.
Netizens assumed that Vanga was taking a dig at Deepika since the tweet came days after the actress had bowed out of Spirit, headlined by Prabhas. Her departure has been at the centre of an online storm with reports attributing her exit to disagreements over remuneration and alleged unprofessional behaviour.
Spirit is billed as a pan-India action drama and marks Prabhas’s first collaboration with both Dimri and Vanga. The film, bankrolled by T-Series and Bhadrakali Pictures, is currently in pre-production. Dimri had worked with Vanga in Animal.
Spirit will reportedly feature Prabhas in the role of a fierce police officer. During the promotions for his 2023 film Animal, Vanga had revealed that the protagonist in Spirit comes from a middle-class background, as compared to Animal and Arjun Reddy, where the male leads belonged to wealthy families, as per IMDb.
On the work front, Tamannaah, 35, has the film Ranger in the pipeline.
