Turning an overnight sensation came at a personal cost for actor Triptii Dimri, who said that the wave of negativity that she received after the blockbuster debut of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal was tough to deal with. In the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer, Triptii played a mole and featured in the controversial ‘lick my shoe‘ scene, which received a lot of flak from people.

After headlining streaming hits such as Bulbbul and Qala, both on Netflix, Triptii said that Animal was the first time she was exposed to criticism of this scale, which completely shook her. In an appearance on Ranveer Allahbadia’s podcast, Triptii said that dealing with the hate and “nasty comments” took a toll on her, as she only focused on the negativity rather than the praise that was also coming her way.

“Pre-Animal, there was no criticism. Post the film, there has been a lot of criticism, but I think that is the side effect of being mainstream. Overall, I am happy, because I am getting to work with such important people. But initially, it was difficult, because during Bulbbul and Qala, there was absolutely no criticism. I’d read my comments and I’d be so happy and think, ‘People are only writing good things, there’s no problem in life.’ Cut to, Animal.

“I always read all the comments, and I remember for a month I couldn’t understand what was happening, I just did my job, couldn’t understand why was I getting so much negativity. It was a difficult month for me, because half of the world was celebrating me and the other half was trying to put me down. I was focusing more on the negative than the positive,” she added.

 

 

A post shared by Triptii Dimri (@tripti_dimri)

The actor then revealed that the hate reached a level where she couldn’t take it any longer, and she cried for at least three days. Triptii said her mechanism is to always withdraw from a conflict, and with the intense negativity that came her way, she went into a shell again. “I cried a lot after Animal, for at least two-three days. I was not used to this at all. This happened all of a sudden, and I never expected I would have to face criticism of this magnitude. People were writing rubbish, and you know how nasty they can get. I spoke to my sister, who told me to own it. ‘You know what you’ve done, achieved what you have achieved.’ I am a sensitive person, if I have a fight with someone, I go into my shell. So, even then, I was getting affected a lot. I didn’t know what to focus on, there was so much happening, including work. There was no time to sit down and process,” she added.

Post Animal, Triptii was seen in Karan Johar-backed Bad Newz. She will now be seen in Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video, co-starring Rajkummar Rao. She also has Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Dhadak 2 lined up for release.

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