Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi who made his Tollywood debut this year with Ram Charan’s Vinaya Vidheya Rama has apologized for sharing a meme on actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's personal life and deleted the controversial tweet after being severely criticized on social media.
He brought up the fact that Aishwarya had once dated Salman Khan (calling it opinion poll), but later dated him (exit poll) and finally settled down with Abhishek Bachchan (the end result). Vivek was trolled on Twitter as netizens expressed their shock at the fact that he would bring up the matter again.
Now, Vivek has issued an apology, saying, "Even if one woman is offended by my reply to the meme, it calls for remedial action. Apologies." In another post, he wrote, "Sometimes what appears to be funny and harmless at first glance to one, may not be so to others. I have spent the last 10 years empowering more than 2000 underprivileged girls, I cant even think of being disrespectful to any woman ever."
His apology comes after the National Commission for Women (NCW) issued a notice to him yesterday. The NCW sought an explanation from Oberoi. In a letter to the actor, the NCW referred to media reports that the actor had “drawn a sly comparison between the poll result and a woman’s personal life.”
Last night, responding to the controversy, Oberoi told reporters that he had shared the meme because he found it funny and did not understand "why people are making a big deal about this."