Mumbai: Singer Chinmayi Sripaada gave it back to a troll for bringing up her past sexual abuse trauma story and shaming her for extending support to distressed women, when she herself couldn’t save herself from getting molested.
The online criticism started when Chinmayi’s husband, actor-director Rahul Ravindran shared his perspective on a particular marital custom during an interview.
“After our marriage, I told my wife Chinmayi that it was her choice whether to wear mangalsutra or not. I even suggested not wearing it, because it’s unfair that men have no visible sign of being married, while women are expected to have one,” Rahul said.
Rahul’s quote triggered negative reactions from a section of social media users, with one of them shaming the couple by referring to Chinmayi’s molestation incident.
Addressing the backlash, Chinmayi said, “He literally said it in some context on an interview which has become a tweet. The rage from the men calling him all sorts of abuses – I am worried for the women here truth be told.”
When an X user abused Chinmayi by tweeting, “you couldn’t save your a** when vairamuthu allegedly groped you but here you are worried for other women,” she hit back, “Yes. Because getting groped and molested is MY fault. Why do men like you have to bring up my sexual harassment episode and my molester to prove some non-point? Just please vanish into thin air in Delhi so that I dont have to breathe it.”
For the unversed, during India’s #MeToo movement in 2018, Chinmayi had called out lyricist Vairamuthu for molesting her when they were in Switzerland for a concert in 2005.
She was removed from the South Indian Cine, Television Artistes and Dubbing Artistes Union (SICTADAU) when she extended her support to women who accused president of the dubbing union, Radha Ravi of sexual misconduct.
Chinmayi and Ravindran got married in May 5, 2014, and are blessed with twins, Driptah (a girl) and Sharvas (a boy).