After creating a splash in the South film industries, particularly with her stint as a ‘wink girl’ in her debut project Oru Adaar Love (2019), actor Priya Prakash Varrier is all set to foray into Bollywood with a film titled Love Hackers. She recently wrapped up the movie, which deals with the dark web and cybercriminals. It will see her playing a cybercrime victim.
In an exclusive interaction with News18, Varrier reveals that she has been a victim of cyber harassment and bullying in real life as well. “When I started out, a big blow up happened. The noise around my wink was something that was totally out of my control or power. I didn’t even get enough time to process what was happening. By then, trolls, memes and hate comments had already started,” she recalls.
The actor believes that she was emotionally affected as she was all of 18. “Initially, it was a little hard to adjust to whatever was happening because as an 18-year-old outsider, I had no one guiding me or telling me the things that I should do or not do and how to deal with such a situation. When you face so many things so early on in your career, they tend to take a toll on you and there’s a lot of self-doubt that comes with it,” elaborates Varrier, who’s also the brand ambassador for a cybercrime awareness campaign called Trapped.Zone.
Talking about how she has learnt to block out negative comments by relentless trolls over time, the 22-year-old says, “It’s definitely been tough for me initially but over time, I got used to trolls and hate comments and learnt to ignore unnecessary things. These things are a part and parcel of our profession and all actors go through bullying and trolling on a daily basis.”
But Varrier’s quick to add that actors often become soft targets and that’s also why they are victims of cancel culture on social media. “People forget that we’re as human as they are. They perceive us as public properties as opposed to public figures. As actors, all of us put ourselves a little bit more out there than the rest of the population. But you just can’t say whatever you want to about us; you can’t hate us or cancel us,” she concludes.
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