Preity Zinta shared this image. (courtesy: realpz)
Actor Preity Zinta, in her latest Instagram entry, opened up about two recent incidents where she was harassed. The actress, in a strongly-worded statement, wrote, "2 events this week have left me a bit shaken." The actress called out a woman who clicked pictures of the actress' infant daughter and forcefully kissed her. Sharing the second incident, the actress stated that she was harassed by a man in a wheelchair, who constantly tried to stop her and asked her for some money. The incident was filmed by a paparazzo, who she also called out in her post. Recalling the first incident, Preity Zinta wrote: "1 regarding my daughter Gia - where a woman tried to take her photo. When we politely asked her not to she walked away, then suddenly scooped my daughter in her arms and planted a big wet kiss next to her mouth and ran off saying what a cute baby. This woman lives in an elite building and happened to be in the garden where my kids were playing. If I wasn't a celebrity I probably would have reacted badly but kept my cool as I didn't want to make a scene."
Preity Zinta added in her post how the paparazzo, instead of helping out the actress decided to film it instead and can be heard laughing. She wrote, "You can see the 2nd incident here. I had a plane to catch and this handicapped man kept trying to stop me. Over the years he has harassed me for money and I have given it to him when I could. This time when he asked for money I said sorry today I have no cash, just a credit card. The lady with me gave him some money from her purse. He threw it back at her cuz it wasn't enough and started getting aggressive. As you can see he followed us for some time and got more aggressive. The photographers found this incident funny. Instead of helping us they filmed and laughed."
The actress added that in case of an accident, she would have been blamed and wrote: "No one told him not to follow the car or harass us as anyone could have gotten hurt. Had there been an accident, I would have been blamed. My being a celebrity would have been questioned. Bollywood would have been blamed and a lot of negativity would have spread. I think it's high time people realise that I'm a human being first, then a mom and then a celebrity. I also don't need to apologise for my success constantly and be bullied for it cuz I've worked very hard to get where I am. I have an equal right like anyone else in this country to live the way I want so please think before you judge and please stop blaming celebrities for everything. There are always 2 sides to a story. "
The actress signed off the post saying that her kids' privacy should not be violated. She wrote, "Most importantly my children are not part of a package deal and are not meant to be preyed on so please leave my kids alone and don't come to them for photos or touch/grab them. They are infants and need to be treated like infants, not celebrities."
Calling out the photographers that were laughing during the incident, the actress wrote in her statement, "I sincerely hope that the photographers that ask us for photos, videos and sound bytes also have the grace, humanity and maturity to act and help in the future instead of filming and laughing cuz most of the time it's not funny."
Read Preity Zinta's post here:
Earlier this year, Alia Bhatt had called out a media house after they had published a picture of the actress at her home without her consent. After Alia Bhatt, her sister Shaheen Bhatt, actors Anushka Sharma, Janhvi Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor and filmmaker Karan Johar also called out the media house in their respective social media posts.