A still from the trailer of Chhapaak.
Actor Deepika Padukone visited Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University on Tuesday evening in a show of solidarity with students and teachers who were attacked by masked goons on campus on Sunday. Her visit to JNU divided opinions on social media, where trending hashtags ranged from #BoycottChhapaak to #ISupportDeepika to #ChhapakDekhoTapaakSe.
But amid calls to boycott Chhapaak - including from some in the BJP like Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga - Deepika Padukone's supporters fought back by offering to sponsor tickets for her movie releasing Friday.
A Twitter account with 1.6 lakh followers put out a post offering to sponsor "100 tickets for Chhapaak for any NGO working with underprivileged kids." The tweet was 'liked' more than 26,000 times.
Ramit Verma, the man behind the account, told NDTV that he decided to sponsor tickets for the movie after he saw #BoycottChhapaak trending on the microblogging platform.
"This was very disheartening to see because it takes immense courage to stand up for students who are directly being made a target by the establishment," said Mr Verma. "I thought this would be a great way to show support to Deepika for being so brave and drawing the nation's attention to the students."
He added that he had received over 50 emails from NGOs and individuals like school teachers wanting to take him up on his offer and that he would select one from among them.
Another Twitter user, Arun Arora, who also offered to sponsor a 100 Chhapaak tickets for an NGO, told NDTV that he had been contacted by 4 to 5 organisations.
Mr Arora said that he decided to sponsor movie tickets after the "boycott move by BJP" and because of Ms Padukone's courage. "I also want that Laxmi's story should reach more and more people," he said.
Many other social media users, tweeting with the hashtags #ISupportDeepika and #ChhapakDekhoTapaakSe, also offered to buy Chhapaak tickets for others.
On the other hand, a number of Twitter users posted that they had cancelled their tickets to Chhapaak after Deepika Padukone's JNU appearance.
On Sunday, masked attackers entered the JNU campus and beat students and teachers. The police has blamed the violence on clashes between the Left and Right Wing students and charged JNU students union president Aishe Ghosh, who was injured during the attacks, with vandalism.
Deepika Padukone did not speak at JNU, but photos of her standing with Aishe Ghosh drew admiration from many.
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