Singer and dubbing artiste Chinmayi Sripada has approached the Hyderabad City Police after receiving a morphed nude photograph of herself on Wednesday evening.
What's Happening
- Chinmayi escalated the issue to Hyderabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar on social media and released a video detailing the online harassment she has been facing over the past few weeks.
- According to Chinmayi, the trolling intensified after her husband, filmmaker and actor Rahul Ravindran, commented on the mangalasutra recently.
- Sharing the morphed image and her video statement online, she wrote, "I got a morphed image from a page today and tagged the cops - whether legal action happens, will happen or not, is not the issue."
- In her video, she explained the scale of abuse and threats directed at her family.
- She said, "I have been abused, my children have been given death threats, I have filed a police complaint against a few on the Twitter Spaces who said that the kind of women they don't like shouldn't ever have children, and if they do, their children must die. There were men applauding and laughing at this."
- Chinmayi added that online attacks against her have been ongoing, particularly since she spoke publicly about facing harassment from a lyricist.
- "A lot of people have abused me; they have been paid for by political groups. There was a particular Tweet today that shared a morphed photo of me in the nude. I am sharing so women know these kinds of things happen, men do this to push us out of public spaces," she added.
Chinmayi Sripada On Deepfakes
The singer also addressed the growing threat of deepfakes and AI-generated sexual images, noting that more women could be targeted by individuals seeking to shame or intimidate them.
Emphasising that she would not be silenced, Chinmayi said, "I am not the kind of woman who is shamed by this." She urged women, girls, and parents to take legal action if they ever face similar abuse.
Chinmayi has long been one of the most outspoken voices in India's MeToo movement.
In 2018, she accused lyricist Vairamuthu of sexual harassment and amplified allegations against musicians OS Thyagarajan, Raghu Dixit, and Karthik.
After her public statements, her membership in the Tamil Film Dubbing Union was terminated by its president, Radha Ravi, who cited non-payment of fees - a matter that is currently being contested in court.
