The trolls are back to haunt Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor Khan. Barely four years after she was viciously attacked on social media for naming her son Taimur, after the 14th-century Turkic ruler who captured Delhi in 1398, she is now being hounded for naming her second son Jehangir, after the 17th-century Mughal emperor.
The attacks began after the release of the actress’s first book, Kareena Kapoor Khan’s Pregnancy Bible, last week. In the book, one of the photos of her second son, who was born in February, was captioned "Jehangir Ali Khan". Prior to this, the newborn was only referred to as Jeh.
Kapoor Khan and her husband, Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, have not publicly announced the name before this, presumably scarred by the online abuse they received when Taimur’s name became public.
"First Kid – Taimur (who killed millions of Hindus) Second kid – Jehangir (who killed Guru Arjan) What will be the name of next one?" one Twitter user posted after the publication of Kapoor Khan's book.
"First son – Taimur and 2nd one Jahangir. Well done – perpetuating Mughal culture. Enemies of the nation. We should continue to boycott their movies. Shame on these two," another posted.
"Imagine a Punjabi Kapoor naming her sons after Taimur and Jehangir who tortured and brutally executed Sikh Guru Arjan," said another.
Kapoor Khan, a Hindu, married Ali Khan, a Muslim, in 2012, and are among many interfaith couples in Bollywood – superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who is Muslim, is married to Gauri Khan, who is Hindu, while top Muslim actor and producer Aamir Khan was married to Hindu producer and director Kiran Rao before the couple announced their separation in July.
But the growing clout of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its nationalist agenda has often put the once-secular film industry in the spotlight, with many celebrities facing the brunt online.
Addressing the backlash, Kapoor Khan said she has decided to "stay happy and positive".
"There are two sides to a coin. So it’s OK. If there is positivity, there is negativity, I have to look at it like that. I wish there wasn’t. Because we have two innocent children we are talking about," she told India Today.
“You know I am a very, very positive person. I am very happy and content. I want to spread happiness and positivity in a time like Covid, I can’t think of trolls or any form of negativity,” she said.
In her book, the actress detailed her struggles with her second pregnancy.
"This pregnancy was extremely difficult compared to Taimur’s, which was a breeze," she writes. "I had loved it, enjoyed it and that gave me the courage to do it again. But this was different. I had bouts where I would sit down and think, ‘I don’t think I can do this, don’t think anything is going to be okay'."
One of the highest-paid actresses in India, Kapoor Khan is the fifth generation in a long line of actors and producers. Her family, the Kapoors, are often referred to as the first family of Bollywood.
