After actor Nayanthara came out with an open letter condemning actor Dhanush for “festering vengeance” against her and her husband and director Vignesh Sivan, she has been subjected to vitriolic character assassination across social media platforms with the hashtag CharacterlessLadyNayanthara. Several users took to vile slut shaming, pulling up information about her personal life and alleged romantic relationships. While some posts bully her for having dated actors in the past, others contrast this with Dhanush’s national awards in an attempt to reduce Nayanthara’s diverse film career to her romantic choices alone.
This is the first time that a female actor has called out Dhanush, a powerful industry name, accusing him of harassment on set and leaving “unhealable scars” on her dignity. Nayanthara, who earned the title of ‘Lady Superstar’ through her consistent body of work, wrote in a public statement on November 16 that Dhanush sent her a Rs 10 crore legal notice, for using a 3-second Behind the Scenes (BTS) clip from the sets of her 2015 film Naanum Rowdy Dhaan in her Netflix biographical documentary Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale. Naanum Rowdy Dhaan was produced by Dhanush and directed by Vignesh Shivan.
While it is for the courts to decide on the legality of the copyright issue involved here, the ongoing cyber harassment only focuses on Nayanthara and her personal life, dragging it to sexist scrutiny, and attributing no onus on Dhanush for the allegations made by her. One X user wrote that while Dhanush earned four national awards, all Nayanthara did was make three ex-boyfriends. Another user pulled out intimate scenes between her and actor Simbu from their film Vallavan, with sexually coloured remarks to shame her.
Several social media handles have also been sharing video clips of RS Anthanan, who has produced one Tamil film, claiming that Nayanthara rose to fame and acted with young heroes only after actor Simbu ‘took a liking to her after’ the release of her debut Tamil film Ayya in 20025. A look at Nayanthara’s filmography would make it clear that even before Ayya, Nayanthara had a career in modelling and acting. She had two box office hits in Malayalam, debuting with Manasinakkare in 2003, the comeback film of veteran actor Sheela, starring Jayaram in the male lead, and Vismayathumbathu in 2004 opposite superstar Mohanlal. The actor was also the host of a popular television show Chamayam which was telecast on Kairali TV.
Nayanthara has been slut-shamed several times before this by social media trolls over her past relationships. Previously, the actor was also subjected to intense cyber harassment for essaying the role of Sita from the Hindu epic Ramayana in the film Sri Rama Rajyam, in 2011. Actor Radha Ravi was the first to comment on Nayanthara being cast for the role of Sita at the launch of the trailer of Nayanthara’s film Kolaiyuthir Kaalam in 2019, and it was met with applause from the audience. Addressing this Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale, which was released on Monday, November 18, she said, “Even till today, no one has ever asked any of those boys ‘Why did you do this?’ or ‘What happened?.’ They always ask the girls. That's so not fair. If you are asking me, ask the other person also.”
Nayanthara had mentioned in her statement against Dhanush that both she and the team at Netflix were harassed by Dhanush who refused to give a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to use songs, videos or even stills from Naanum Rowdy Dhaan for the biography. The film, she said, is a significant turning point in her professional and personal career, and they had to re-edit and settle for a different version of the biography, after two years of back and forth with Dhanush. Despite editing out clips for which Dhanush had refused to grant NOC, Netflix and Nayanthara were served with a legal notice of Rs 10 crore, two days before the release of Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale.
In her statement, Nayanthara went beyond the copyright issue and wrote that Dhanush has been “vile” towards her for the past decade and that she has not “forgotten all the horrible things” he said to her before the release of Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, which went on to become a big hit. “The words you said pre-release have left some unhealable scars to us,” she wrote. Nayanthara, in an award show, had also said that Dhanush ‘hated’ her performance in Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, but that the film is special to her since she also met her now husband Vignesh while working on it.
It is not new for women who take on powerful industry men to be shamed in similar ways by the online ecosystem. Actor Samatha Ruth Prabhu also went through bullying and cyber trolling after she and her former husband Chaitanya Akkineni announced their divorce. Social media users particularly tried to establish that Samantha’s bikini pictures post marriage on Instagram had tampered with the ‘reputation’ of the Akkineni family. Several netizens also shamed the actor for performing the hit song Oo Antava from the Allu Arjun-Rashmika Maddanna starrer Pushpa: The Rise.