Adil Hussain on being trolled over The Kashmir FilesIt was an ill-timed tweet

Recently, Adil Hussain’s “truth must be spoken tenderly” tweet led many to assume that it was a dig at director Vivek Agnihotri’s film, The Kashmir Files. And the actor says he was surprised by the confusion.

“I wasn’t shocked with people’s response to my tweet. But it did come as sort of a surprise to me that where did I go wrong,” confesses Hussain.

In his Twitter post, he wrote, “Truth must be spoken!No doubt about it. But must be spoken Tenderly. Else purpose of speaking the truth loses its beauty. And the impact is reactive.Not responsive. We, for sure, don’t want to fuel a reactive society but nourish a responve-sible one. Art Should not be reactive”, following which he was brutally trolled.

He stresses, “I realised it was the most ill-timed tweet. In fact, I have never been so ill-timed ever in my life, not just on Twitter but anything that I did in my life.”

Looking back at what led to the post, the actor reveals, “I was having an intellectual discussion with someone about what is art to me, and that led to the post. But everyone assumed it was about the film, when I haven’t watched the film till date. People believe what they want to believe but it was not directed to the movie. One should understand the intention behind the post.”

The English Vinglish (2012) and Bell Bottom (2019) actor took around two days to react to trolls and clarify his stance.

“While I was preoccupied with shoots, I also wanted to respond [to what was being claimed] and not just react. I believe in responding not reacting. In fact, a lot of people define acting as reacting, but acting also has an element of introspection or pondering it,” he says, adding, “responding doesn’t come from the vessel being contracted, but larger.”

Getting philosophical, he explains, “It comes from a larger (space). Whenever we are angry, irritated or annoyed, we become less of being. When we are larger, we are calm. That’s the space from where responding to something comes from. That’s why I took time to clarify my stance. More than anything, I was flummoxed by it all.”

And in the middle of all this, Hussain doesn’t mind being misjudged. “Because everyone is misunderstood, me, my friends. I also misunderstand some things sometimes. There’s nothing shocking about it, what is important is to take the intention across. It is about having a dialogue,” he wraps up.