A video of actor Aahana Kumra telling a man, “Don’t touch me” has gone viral online. It happened recently when the actor was exiting an event and a fan asked her for a picture and just while getting clicked, put his hand around her waste. Opening up about the incident, Kumra says, “I agreed for a picture but I was like, ‘Sorry, you can’t touch me’. It was kind of weird,” says the actor.
She goes on to add that fans need to mind their limit “especially when I am obliging you. I can very politely decline a photo but I am never rude to anybody”.
Kumra thinks that social media is to be blamed for fans thinking like they know celebs inside out. To maintain boundaries, she feels, it’s important to tell them sternly sometimes.
“Being public figures who have our lives out in open on social media, people think we are so accessible, as they see us almost everyday. Sometimes the lines get blurred. They think that they know us, but we don’t know them. I feel like there has to be a boundary maintained,” she maintains.
The actor further calls for tighter security at such events. “There should be bouncers to make sure that these kind of people are not there. It’s very important. When we are being called to any of these events or parties, it’s important that our security is also kept in mind. Although this happened a little later at night, I feel like security is still security. There was nobody actually to cordon these people off. I don’t even know who they were. I had no idea this was even posted online.”
That being said, the Marzi actor tells us that this has never happened with her before and “it kind of threw me off. I’ll be very careful now at an event and I will politely decline any photos because if it’s going to be harassment, I might as well stay away from it.”
Not at a public place, but Kumra recalls a similar incident of invasion of privacy by a fan that happened sometime back. “Somebody once came into my house with a friend. He said that he wanted to narrate a script. I was getting ready for an event and I was in a photo shoot. Nobody knew who he was, and I don’t know who allowed him in. He was sitting inside my hall and then we had to go on all day to call the cops. Then he later accepted that he just came to meet me. I was scared that what if he harms somebody in my house?” she narrates, adding “People say that actors become unapproachable. This is why. Because you’re going to do something like this. You can’t rip off somebody’s personal space. We are public figures but we don’t know you. So, there has to be a line, and you can’t cross that line”.