People call me buddhi, gold digger: Chahatt Khanna on trolling and being linked to Mika Singh, Sukesh Chandrashekhar

Chahatt Khanna has often been on the receiving end of trolling, be it for her linkups with singer Mika Singh and conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar or for speaking her mind on social media. The 36-year-old calls all this “heartbreaking” and admits the negativity gets to her.

“People call me names like buddhi and gold digger, and it’s heartbreaking,” says Khanna, adding, “They say such mean things without even realising how hard I work. Just because I am not seen on camera, does not mean I am not working. I am busy with my startup, which is worth crores. Of course I cannot go to people and tell up them that ‘hello, I am an entrepreneur’. But all this definitely disturbs me.”

Khanna feels she is subjected to constant scrutiny for things that are “not even true”. She shares that no matter what she does, it somehow turns against her. “Look at the articles written about me in the last six months. Every time I read them, I’m like, ‘Okay, there it is another controversy’. Ye sab hota toh sabke saath hai, but I am an exception in some ways. Because even if I put out a picture, people think I am getting married – just like it happened when I posted Mika’s pictures. There was nothing between us but still, it was turned into a big deal. I think there are a few people, no matter what they do, it is turned into a controversy. I am one of them (laughs),” she tells us.

All of this has made the actor “wary of what I say or put out in public”. She elaborates, :Main apne bhai ke sath bhi photo daalungi toh log bolenge ki naya boyfriend hai. I cannot stop living my life due to this, but I will definitely stop sharing it on social media. I was never this person who used to hide things, but I have become a private person now.”

The Qubool Hai actor despises the fact that, as a public figure, she is told that she must refrain from certain activities, including sharing her opinion on things, as she did for fashion influencer Uorfi Javed’s clothes. “People say, ‘At least tumhe toh ye sab nahi karna ya kehna chaiye’. And my question to them is: why this pressure and unrealistic expectation from me? Is it because I am a public figure? Aren’t we humans as well?”

Calling it unjust, Khanna points out how that like any other person, public figures also have opinions, “but every time we put it forward, we are trolled. We also have the right to do whatever we want with our life and share our thoughts.”