New Delhi, Nov 2: The usually restrained Amitabh Bachchan on Monday took on a media outlet for misrepresenting his words in the praise of Lord Krishna, saying in an angry post that 10 per cent of his 50 million follower base is enough to strike back and is just waiting for his signal.
His post on October 29 was simply an invocation to Lord Krishna, Bachchan wrote on social media platforms. He had said then, “Go bring your elephants, we will also… Haathi ghoda palki, Jai Kanhaiya Lal ki.”
The media outlet reported it saying that Bachchan was challenging his opponents by telling them, “Bring your elephants and horses.”
“For Krishna Kanhaiya, in the form of prayer, it’s often chanted -‘Haathi ghoda palki, Jai Kanhaiya Lal ki ‘ And the media, by disrespecting it, prints it for their own publicity…,” a furious Bachchan responded in Hindi.
This, he said, was not only a “grave insult” to the ‘Jai Shri Krishna’ invocation but also a deliberate attempt to twist his words.
“Listen up, media folks, with your ears wide open… There is a 50 million-strong follower base, media folks. The day I give the signal, just 10 per cent of them are ready and waiting to strike. (‘Jis din humne ishara kiya, to usme se keval 10 pratishat hi, thokne ke liye taiyaar baithe hain’).”
The 84-year-old superstar, one of the earliest in the industry to take blogging seriously, posts everyday without fail. The posts, sometimes ambiguous, are often greetings, personal details, movie nostalgia or a diary of how his day went. He often refers to his over 50 million followers across platforms as extended family, or ef.
“The more you twist my words and condemn them, the 100 times greater capacity the Ef has (they’re) lying in wait to do the same. … It’s just a matter of them speaking up,” he added on X in his post in the early hours of Monday.
Sharing the headline that had irked him, he said,”Look what the media prints. Did you see the insult to the religion.”
“Nothing could be more laughable than this… If we make a mistake—mistakes happen—we immediately apologise and try to make amends… But here it seems like this is their birthright…,” he said in his lengthy post.
Bachchan has actively stayed connected with his many followers on his official blog as well as on X where he has 44.7 million followers and on Instagram where his follower count stands at 36.2 million.
The actor also attends ‘Sunday Darshan’ every week to greet fans who gather outside his Mumbai house. He stepped out of his residence to greet cheering fans this Sunday too – but behind a bulletproof glass.
The extra layer of protection followed an October 23 email sent to Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde threatening bomb blasts at Bachchan’s residence and the Mumbai venue of singer Diljit Dosanjh’s concert.
According to police, the email, also marked to Deputy Mayor Sanjay Ghadi, warned of a grenade attack on a school on October 31 and threatened to target Bachchan’s Juhu home ‘Jalsa’ between October 31 and November 27. (PTI)
