Telugu star Vijay Deverakonda has hit back at claims that his donations for COVID-19 relief are fake and reports that are “trying to destroy” the Arjun Reddy actor’s career and image.
Sharing hashtags #KillGossipWebsites, #SpreadPositivity and #KillFakeNews, Deverakonda posted a message on Twitter: “When someone who is supposed to be the guardian of truth lies to you or betrays your trust, intentionally - the society is in danger. This video is my responsibility to my people. Meanwhile, you are welcome to continue trying to end my career, destroy my image, write nonsense about me.”
He also shared a video, in which he shared screenshots from reports on websites that claimed the actor’s charity, The Deverakonda Foundation's fund’s figures were not accurate. Deverakonda retorted by sharing screenshots of people praising the organisation, along with details about the number of donations made and the total money he had raised. The actor also shared a spreadsheet of his contributions to the coronavirus relief activities on Twitter, and has been posting daily updates on the amount received and distributed by The Deverakonda Foundation.
Vijay Deverakonda’s post received support from several peers in the Telugu film industry, first among which was Mahesh Babu.
He tweeted: "I stand by you, brother" and shared a note which stated, "It takes years of hard work, effort, patience, passion, and sacrifice to earn the love and respect of the people. You work to be the husband your wife deserves, the superhero father your kids want you to be, and the superstar your fans crave for. And then, some faceless person, ready to do anything for money, disrespects you, lies to readers, and spreads misinformation, all for his next paycheck. I want to protect our beautiful industry Of Telugu cinema, I want to protect my fans and I want to protect my kids from a world where this is considered normal. I call upon the industry to act upon these fake websites that live off us and disrespect and lie about us collectively."
Chiranjeevi, Rana Daggubati, director Sandeep Reddy Vanga and Allari Naresh were some of the others who shared Deverakonda’s post to back the actor and vowed their support to him.
