Speaking at a session at the 2019 International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Telugu actor Vijay Devarakonda attacked polarised Twitter users, whom he dubbed “twidiots”, who supposedly slammed his controversial two-year-old film ‘Arjun Reddy’.
The source of the social media conversation was a recent interview in which he appeared with actor Parvathy Thiruvothu, among others.
During the interview, Parvathy had attacked the film for the glorification of violence in a relationship, while Devarakonda had said there are more factors influencing a person’s character than films.
The subject was brought up by the moderator of the IFFI session, in which Devarakonda appeared with Rakul Preet Singh.
In response to the question, Devarakonda threw back his head in exasperation and said, “I am irritated and I can’t keep it in. If I keep it in, it will become like one tumour. So, I am irritated with the backstories of the interview we had.”
“I am normally very understanding. I take it very easily and give people the benefit of doubt. I saw that there was a genuine angst and genuine intention behind these questions. But these people don’t know what they are talking about, man.”
“It was all very misplaced. I didn’t mind the question then at all. I love Parvathy. I admire her work. I have been watching her from when I was in undergrad. What irritates me is the social media ‘hadavidi’... As in, people just go nuts, man. Stupid people don’t know what they are talking. Like there are a bunch of idiots everywhere,” the ‘Dear Comrade’ star said.
Speaking on Wednesday afternoon, the actor said he will school such people “tonight”.
He said he had just been “sent” a tweet by a “blue tick Twitterati”. Taking a tangent, the actor then asked whether the Twitter community was not “tweeple” once upon a time.
“They are all twidiots,” he said.
“They all want it to be black or white. But the world is not like that, my friends. It’s very grey,” Devarakonda said.
He said film critic Baradwaj Rangan will act as the mediator for his response to such people because he wants a “devil’s advocate”.