Shweta Bachchan has been a guest columnist for DNA since a while now, but her latest article is her most powerful one yet. Titled – Can my daughter Navya have her private life back? Shweta has written about the various private photos of her daughter Navya Naveli being posted online and then being titled hot and sexy by entertainment websites. Here are some excerpts –
On putting up headlines which sexualise her daughter –
My phone alerts me to an Instagram post made by my daughter, a picture of her descending a flight of stairs. Before I can even click a heart on it in approval, I think… the internet is going to have a field day with this one when they get their hands on it, and they eventually will! I almost pick up the phone to call her and grumble about yet another picture of hers floating all over the net, but stop myself. This is why… You do not know my daughter, the websites that post her pictures with captions like ‘Navya Nanda HOT pics’ or ‘Navya Nanda parties with friends, WILD’! certainly do not know her either. Nor, might I add, do they have her permission to post her private pictures. She is not a public figure. Yes, she is related to some very famous people, but that is something completely out of her control.
On Navya being a normal teenager –
She is a teenager, and as most young teens are wont to do, she likes to dress up, hang out with her friends, pose for pictures and yes, go out to parties (she has a deadline and is always home well before it is over). If she finds herself on a beach, she will wear beach-appropriate attire — namely, a swimsuit — as would any young girl anywhere. If there is music, she will dance much like her peers would. She will pout, she will preen, she will hang out with boys — the last time I checked, absolutely normal teenage behaviour!
And finally, a request on letting her daughter’s private life, be private –
I can write about it in the hope that the people peddling this nonsense have some shame or at least accountability, though I highly doubt they will. Perhaps if they understood that we, just like them, are human beings, trying to get about our everyday lives while making sure we give respect to the love and affection people show members of our family, couldn’t they in return give my daughter her private life back?
You can read the entire article here.