Social media has never been a bad place for me: Hrithik Roshan

Mumbai: Social media is ”usually a really good playground”, Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan said on Monday while stressing that users always have the power to choose their response to any situation.

Indian celebrities have often borne the brunt of social media and Roshan has faced his fair share of controversies, the most recent being a Zomato ad that was withdrawn after a backlash.

However, the 48-year-old actor said he looks at social media from a positive mindset.

”I have never seen social media as something that is a negative, it has always been positive. Because you have to have your own filters, you have to have the ability to control it, the way you react, the way you respond,” Roshan said in a group interview also attended by PTI.

”It is actually a really good playground of what you react to and how aware you are that this is a reaction and oh this is a response. It has never been a bad place,” he added.

The actor has 32 million followers on Twitter and 44 million on Instagram. He uses social media only occasionally, mostly to wish people on their birthdays or promos of his films and some family photographs.

Roshan is currently gearing up for the launch of his latest movie ”Vikram Vedha”, an official remake of the 2017 Tamil hit of the same title that featured R Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi.

Hindi films in general have been battling a wave of negativity in recent times, especially movies such as Aamir Khan’s ”Laal Singh Chaddha” and Akshay Kumar-starrer ”Raksha Bandhan” that faced boycott calls on social media.

But all is good, said Roshan. Negativity, he added, is important in life as it has always pushed him to seek positivity.

”Contrast is always important, like day and night, good or bad. We are talking about grey here (in ‘Vikram Vedha’). So negativity is there to keep you in a state of or seeking the positivity.

”It should nudge you to find the light. And which is why I always look at that with positivity, it is there to help you for some reason. It nudge you go a better place. It is all good,” the ”War” star said.

Billed as an edge-of-the-seat action crime thriller, ”Vikram Vedha” is based on the popular Indian folktale “Vikram aur Betal”. It tells the story of a tough police officer (Khan) who sets out to track down and hunt a menacing gangster (Hrithik).

Filmmaker duo Pushkar and Gayatri, who helmed the original film, have directed the Hindi version as well.

“Vikram Vedha” is presented by Gulshan Kumar, T-Series Films and Reliance Entertainment in association with Friday Filmworks and YNOT Studios. It is produced by S Sashikanth and produced by Bhushan Kumar.

Also starring Radhika Apte, Sharib Hashmi, Rohit Saraf and Satyadeep Mishra among others, the film is scheduled to be released worldwide theatrically on September 30.