Arbaaz Khan on allegations of ‘rampant drug use and sex’ in Bollywood: ‘It’s a campaign’

Arbaaz Khan opened up about the vicious trolling faced by celebrities in recent times and how it had an effect on celebrities’ mental health as well as their careers. In the aftermath of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, several stars were attacked and abused online.

In an interview, Arbaaz Khan said that the allegations of ‘rampant drug use and sex’ appeared to be a part of a campaign and ‘instigated’. He added that the trolling was done by accounts with just one or two followers, as opposed to verified accounts with millions of followers.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Arbaaz said, “Up till now there were only two professions that were held in the highest regard- cricket and acting. Cricketers and stars remained protected. Cricketers still enjoy that protection. But now what has happened is that stars have been demystified. It’s like, ‘Oh you think you can speak against the government, we will show you that even your stars are no saints and we will run them down.’ It’s a campaign. So, it’s said that there’s rampant drug use and sex in the industry. So, ‘let’s expose them’.”

“This has been done intentionally because it can’t be that things have been happening for 100 years and in one year suddenly everything changed. It has been instigated, probably planned, and if you look at the people doing this they have one or two followers so they have actually opened the account to do this. It’s not that a person has six million followers or is verified and then they are trolling. This comes from a very unfounded scenario where it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not,” he added.

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajput’s sister Shweta Singh Kirti reacts as fan claims Ankita Lokhande is ‘using’ his name for her PR

Arbaaz said that he realised people were taking these allegations seriously when friends and family members started calling to verify if what was said in the news was indeed true. Last year, he filed a defamation case after posts and videos shared online claimed that he was involved in the deaths of Sushant Singh Rajput and Disha Salian.

Meanwhile, Arbaaz will return with the second season of his chat show, Pinch, on Wednesday. His first guest is his elder brother Salman Khan. Other guests include Kiara Advani, Tiger Shroff, Ananya Panday, Rajkummar Rao, Farah Khan and Farhan Akhtar.