Yami Gautam shared this photo (courtesy yamigautam)
Highlights
- A video of Yami Gautam moving away from a fan is viral
- She was trolled on social media for appearing to be "disrespectful"
- "I didn't intend to hurt anyone's sentiments," she wrote
Actress Yami Gautam, who inaugurated the Great Guwahati Marathon in Assam on Sunday, posted a statement on Twitter after being trolled on social media for appearing to "disrespect" Assamese culture. The 31-year-old actress found herself at the receiving end of hate and brutal comments after a video of hers from the Guwahati airport went crazy viral. In the video, originally shared by an Assamese media outlet, the actress can be seen moving away from a male fan, who came too close to her with the intention of greeting her with a gamosa (traditional Assamese scarf). After requesting the fan to stay away, Yami can be seen making her way to the car in a haste as reporters and paps surround her almost immediately.
In her tweet, the Kaabil actress said that swerving away from the fan was a natural reaction when the fan came unexpectedly close to her. "My reaction was simply self-defence. As a woman, if I am uncomfortable with anyone getting too close to me, I or any other girl has every right to express it. I didn't intend to hurt anyone's sentiments but it's very important to voice out a behaviour, inappropriate in any manner," she wrote in a tweet.
Reacting to accusations of her alleged irreverence towards Assamese culture, by rejecting the gamosa from the fan, Yami tweeted this: "This is my third visit to Assam. I have always expressed my love towards Assamese culture and people. It's insensitive to react to a single-sided story and spread hate. I am present here, in this beautiful state for an important event and shall always keep coming back. Peace and respect."
A few hours later, Yami shared an adorable photo of hers from the Great Guwahati Marathon inauguration and said she "had a great time" at the event: "Had a great time flagging off the Great Guwahati Marathon 2020 ! Was so good to see so many smiling faces and hence could feel the love! Thank you for this beautiful 'japi' and 'gamosa'." In the photo, a smiling Yami can be seen sporting a japi (traditional conical hat from Assam) and a gamosa.
While Twitter is flooded with tweets calling out Yami Gautam for not accepting the gamosa, a section of the Internet jumped to Yami Gautam's defence. "There is nothing wrong in what she did. You can not just approach someone randomly," read a tweet while another added: "I think Yami was perfectly right to reject that gamosa."
Yami Gautam was last seen in Bala. She is best known for starring in films such as Kaabil, Uri: The Surgical Strike and Vicky Donor.