Visiting JNU, mocking acid victims, alleged connection with drugs: 5 times Deepika Padukone courted controversies

Right from her first film, ‘Om Shanti Om’ to her latest film, ‘Chhapaak’, Deepika Padukone has grown immensely as an actor. Today, she is undoubtedly one of the most popular and sought-after actresses in B-Town. However, it hasn't exactly been smooth sailing for her. She has had her share of controversies too. Here are five times when the actress found herself embroiled in controversies...

Deepika Padukone was recently slammed on social media for reportedly auctioning clothes that she wore during Jiah Khan's funeral ceremony and Priyanka Chopra’s father’s prayer meet in 2013. According to a report, netizens hit out at the actress for auctioning her clothes instead of just donating them to the needy.

One user wrote, “They’ll do anything to swallow bucks! We middle-class folks give away clothes every now and then. And then too, we’re sensitive to what we pass on, what state the clothes are in, and how old/new they are. India survives on our taxes and our charities”.

Deepika stirred up a controversy after she visited the JNU to show her solidarity and condemn the attack on the students there. This was during the time when anti-CAA protests were at their peak. Although the actress received a lot of media attention during the time, she was also criticised for her timing. Many called it a promotional stunt as Deepika was promoting her then-upcoming film, ‘Chhapaak’ at the time. While #BoycottChhapaak was trending on Twitter, there were also people who were all for #StandWithDeepika.

Deepika’s online video on women empowerment was not received well by the audience. Many termed it, ‘elitist and sexist’. The actress was highly criticised for her dialogue, ‘It's a woman’s choice to have sex outside of marriage'. However, describing the institution of marriage as holy and sacred, Deepika clarified that she never intended to promote infidelity in relationships.

Visiting JNU was not the only controversy Deepika courted while promoting her first production venture, ‘Chhapaak’. The actress was also slammed for a Tiktok video, in which, as part of her promotion for the film, Deepika challenged a user to recreate her acid attack survivor look from the film, which was based on the real life story of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal. Netizens found the promotional tactic very insensitive and called out the actress for trivialising an acid attack survivor’s trauma by calling it a 'look'.

Deepika was questioned by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in connection with the drug racket unearthed during investigations into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. She was summoned after some Whatsapp chats came to light alleging that she was the admin of the group where drugs were discussed, with her manager Karishma Prakash.