Tanuj Virwani said that he felt let down by his ex-girlfriend, actor Akshara Haasan, when she did not publicly stand up for him after her private pictures were leaked on the internet. Many believed that he was behind the leak and he said that one statement from her could have put the matter to rest.
Tanuj said that he remained on friendly terms with Akshara even after they ended their relationship of four years and even met each other’s partners. However, things got awkward after her pictures were leaked in 2018 and they stopped talking.
In an interview with The Times of India, Tanuj said, “When this nonsense about her leaked pictures happened, it was Akshara who first called me and told me about it. Those pictures were from 2013. She wanted to know if I had any knowledge about this. We kept talking after that trying to reach the bottom of this and find out who had done it. We spoke if she had ever given her phone for repair. I was very upset for her sake more than for myself. No girl should go through this. No family should go through this. It’s the worst thing that can happen. I had asked her ‘Akshu, do you think I’ve done this?’ She had said, ‘No, I don’t think you have done it’. I had told her, ‘That’s all I wanted to hear’.”
“A lot of things started coming out in papers, things got awkward between us and we stopped talking. She may have had her reasons for that. But I was disappointed with her. She did not stand up for me publicly. She didn’t say ‘I did it’ but she didn’t say ‘I didn’t do it’ either. That one statement from her would have made it all go away for me. Work had kicked on full-swing and I was very worried whether consequently my work would suffer; it was a very stressful time for me,” he added.
In November 2018, Akshara had put out a statement about her private pictures being leaked and said that every time they are shared online, it ‘scars (her) deeper’. Taking to Twitter, she had written, “Recently, some of my private pictures were leaked on the internet. Who did this, or why, is not known to me yet. But what I do know is that it is deeply unfortunate to make a young girl the victim of such an act only for a pervert mind’s enjoyment. And each time someone shares it with eye-catching headlines to draw more traction, it scars me deeper and adds to everyone’s participation in my harassment and helplessness.”
“Its particularly disturbing and deeply upsetting to see that at a time when the nation has woken up to the #metoo movement, there are still people out there who would harass and attempt to share private pictures of a young girl in the public eye only to derive some perverse pleasure that appeals only to them,” she had added.
