Ananya Panday launches 'So Positive', an initiative against cyberbullying, on World Social Media Day

Mumbai: Actor Ananya Panday has launched a special initiative, ‘So Positive’, against social media bullying on the occasion of World Social Media Day. The initiative aims at spreading awareness about social media bullying and introduce measures that can be taken by the victims in order to deal with it. The 20-year-old actor, who made her Bollywood debut with Student of the Year 2, announced her new initiative ‘So Positive’ as a Digital Social Responsibility (DSR) on her social media accounts. “A part of growing up is taking responsibility & as a woke Millennial I, Ananya Panday introduce y’all to my Digital Social Responsibility initiative ‘So+’ (So Positive)” the actor wrote on Instagram.

In the video, she recounts the number of times she has been called various names, from “a product of nepotism with no brains”, “too tall”, “too thin” to “overacting ki dukaan.” She speaks about how her family and her friends have been trolled, and how she has been linked to her male friends by “nameless, faceless, newly created social media accounts.” She cited a Forbes’ study on how India ranks highest with a whopping 37 percent of youth being subjected to online bullying. Why do we feel empowered hiding behind our screens making harsh personal remarks on people whom most often we don’t even know," asks Ananya, adding that social media has become the “dumping ground” of unmitigated hatred.  She also launched the logo of the initiative on the photo and video sharing platform. Check out the logo here

More from Entertainment

Who is Anuparna Roy, the filmmaker who made history by winning Orizzonti Award at the Venice Film Festival? 'Malaika Arora had differences with Salman Khan over her outfit in Dabangg, they are conservative Muslims,' reveals Abhinav Kashyap

Anurag Kashyap congratulated Ananya on launching the campaign.

Congratulations @ananyapandayy for launching @SoPositiveDSR to create awareness against cyber bullying . pic.twitter.com/da8NFaDpwW

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) June 30, 2019

Ananya Panday was recently accused by a few social media users of lying about being getting selected in USC (University of Southern California) in the US. Taking to Instagram, Ananya dismissed the rumours by posting pictures of the university letters on Instagram. She wrote, “Creating fake conversations, stories and screenshots is very dangerous and can seriously damage people’s lives.” After SOTY 2, Panday’s next project is  _Pati, Patni Aur Woh_  with Kartik Aaryan and Bhumi Pednekar. The film is a modern day rendition of Sanjeev Kumar’s 1978 iconic comedy, slated to release on 10 January, 2020. Directed by Mudassar Aziz, the film will be bankrolled by T-Series’ Bhushan Kumar, and BR Chopra’s grandsons Juno Chopra and Abhay Chopra. (With inputs from Press Trust of India)