Actress Pooja Hegde has revealed her Instagram account was hacked, after unflattering memes about her colleague Samantha Ruth Prabhu were shared, enraging fans and prompting a Twitter trend. #PoojaMustApologizeSamantha is trending furiously, with tweets from angry fans of Samantha who aren't buying Pooja's explanation. On Monday night, Pooja tweeted that her Instagram had been hacked and was in the process of being retrieved. "Please do not accept any invitations or pass out any personal information to the person asking," she urged. An hour later, which she spent "stressing," Pooja tweeted again to say the account was restored and that all activity in the while it had been hacked would be undone.
Read her tweets here:
Hi guys, so I've been informed by my team that my insta account has been hacked and my digital team is helping me with it. Please do not accept any invitations or pass out any personal information out to the person asking. Thank you.
— Pooja Hegde (@hegdepooja) May 27, 2020
Spent the last hour stressing about the safety of my Instagram account. Thanking my technical team for instant help at this hour. Finally, got my hands back on my Instagram Any message, follow back or post in d past hour from my account has been done will be undone. Ty.
— Pooja Hegde (@hegdepooja) May 27, 2020
Pooja Hegde's feed has been cleaned up now - the most recent Instagram post is now one on pet food that she posted three days ago.
There is no mention of Samantha in Pooja Hegde's tweets. As per screenshots doing the rounds of social media, a meme of Samantha had been posted from Pooja's account - it read, "I don't find her pretty at all." It has triggered Samantha's fans who have not been pacified by her explanation and are demanding that Pooja apologize - Pooja's fans say she has nothing to apologize for.
It is, of course, extremely unlikely that Pooja, or any celebrity, would attack a colleague in such a public and pointless manner.
Pooja Hegde works mainly in the Telugu film industry and has also appeared in Hindi movies like Mohenjo Daro and Housefull 4. Her next film, Most Eligibale Bachelor, co-stars Samantha Ruth Prabhu's brother-in-law Akhil Akkineni. Samantha is the star of films such as Ye Maaya Chesave, Eega, Kaththi, Mersal and Rangasthalam - Pooja made a brief appearance in the last.
