Invasion of privacy: Alia Bhatt avoids filing complaint against photographers as bollywood stars rally in her support

Eventhough actor Alia Bhatt slammed the paparazzi for shooting her pictures from the terrace of a neighbouring building, she has not lodged a complaint with the police against the shutterbugs concerned. Deputy commissioner of police of Zone 9 Anil Paraskar confirmed that no complaint has been received yet from Alia. Right to Privacy is widely regarded to be embedded in the right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.

Alia Bhatt, who is the daughter of noted film personality Mahesh Bhatt and wife of actor Ranbur Kapoor, was lounging in the living room of her apartment on Pali Hill, Bandra, on Tuesday when she felt that someone was taking pictures of her. And sure enough, she spotted two photographers perched on the terrace of an opposite building were merrily taking her pictures. She instantly took to Instagram to launch a tirade against the photographers concerned and the media house for whom they worked. The media house had uploaded her pictures. She said her right to privacy has been violated. She also tagged Mumbai police, which promptly called her and asked if she wanted to file a complaint. However, she did not respond to this question.

𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗮 𝗳𝘂𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Alia uploaded a story on Instagram captioned “Are you kidding me?. She went on to say, "I was at my house, having a perfectly normal afternoon, sitting in my living room when I felt something watching over me. I looked up and saw two men on the terrace of the neighbouring building with a camera right at me. In what world is this okay and is this allowed? This is a gross invasion of someone’s privacy. There’s a line that you must not cross, and it is safe to say that all lines were crossed today.”

Her story raised several eyebrows and stirred up a storm from her fellow Bollywood stars with the likes of Arjun Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Karan Johar, and several others denouncing the violation of her right to privacy.

𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗮'𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁

Shaheen Bhatt, a writer, and sister of Alia Bhatt, also criticised the post in her Instagram story saying, “So it's totally cool to point zoom lenses into people's homes while hiding in neighbouring buildings for "content" now? Grown men. With cameras. Hiding across the road. Taking surreptitious photos of an unaware woman. Without her consent. In her home. The fact that the person in the photo is a celebrity does not somehow make this okay. If this was any other situation, with any other person - this would be considered harassment and a complete assault on privacy. Which is what it is. The lack of basic human decency is honestly terrifying." Noted film critic Amod Mehra, however, said, "When these actors are coming up in their careers they seek out the paparazzi. But, once they become celebrities they turn against the very mediapersons." "Public personalities cannot claim right to privacy," he added.

𝗔𝗿𝗷𝘂𝗻 𝗞𝗮𝗽𝗼𝗼𝗿, 𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗻 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗮𝗿, 𝗔𝗻𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗸𝗮 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗮 𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁

Alia’s co-star from the movie 2 States, Arjun Kapoor expressed his dissatisfaction by uploading a story on Instagram which said. “Absolutely SHAMELESS. This is crossing all limits if a woman isn’t feeling safe in her own home forget if she is a public figure or not, for a second... Any sane person who takes photographs of public figures for a living needs to know that this pathetic conduct & there are people in the media we have trusted and shown implicit faith in believing they are here to do a job, not to make women feel unsafe or invade one’s privacy. This is nothing short of stalking.”

Prominent director and producer, Karan Johar, who launched Alia into the industry, called out the publication house by adding a story in which he said, "There is no justification to this absolutely disgusting invasion of privacy. Everyone from the entertainment industry is always for the media and the paparazzi and is accommodating ... but there HAS to be a LIMIT... This is about anyone's right to feel safe in their own homes! This is not about actors or celebrities, it's a basic human right."

Being a victim of a similar incident a couple of years back, actress Anushka Sharma jumped in to take on the media house and said, “This is not the first time they are doing this. About two years ago, we called them out for the same reason. You'd think it would have made them more respectful of people's space and privacy. Absolutely shameful. They were also the only guys posting photos of our daughter despite repeated requests."

These Bollywood personalities appealed to the Mumbai Police to take action against the media outlet.