Director-actor Rahul Ravindran has said he is leaving X after receiving abusive messages and alleged death threats directed at his children amid an online storm surrounding discussions on the death of Pune-based Ketan Agarwal.
The filmmaker said the situation escalated beyond disagreement and became deeply personal, eventually pushing him to delete the platform from his phone. In a post announcing his exit, Rahul wrote, “I am done,” adding that although he had wanted to quit X for some time, he continued using it to follow sports updates, especially coverage of Indian sports beyond cricket.
Rahul said the incident unfolded while he was watching the Brazil vs Japan football match and briefly opened X to check a football-related account. Instead, he ended up reading his notifications — something he later said he regretted.
Reflecting on the impact of the messages, Rahul said they left him angry and emotionally disturbed. He added that he disliked the version of himself that emerged while engaging with the hostility online and no longer wanted a social media platform to have that kind of influence over him.
The online backlash began after Rahul responded to a user who questioned whether he would make a film on violence and “atrocities against men", referencing the recent Ketan Agarwal case and drawing parallels to Rahul’s recent directorial The Girlfriend, starring Rashmika Mandanna.
Addressing the suggestion, Rahul said he did not see isolated crimes committed by individual women as equivalent to systemic oppression. He explained that the ideas explored in The Girlfriend were shaped by his observations of long-standing gender imbalances rather than individual criminal incidents.
Rahul said that while crimes against men can be horrific and deserve attention, he viewed them differently from structural inequalities that women experience in everyday life. According to him, the film was intended to examine subtle forms of control and emotional suffocation rather than depict extreme violence.
The filmmaker also pointed out that The Girlfriend does not portray its male lead as physically abusive or unfaithful. Instead, he said the film attempts to examine relationship dynamics that may appear normal on the surface but still limit a woman’s sense of identity and agency. At the same time, Rahul maintained that he was open to criticism and discussion and said public conversations should leave room for introspection and differing viewpoints.
The controversy also drew in singer Chinmayi Sripada, Rahul’s wife, who defended him by resharing an earlier post of his about empathy, mutual respect and marriage. Her comments triggered further reactions online, extending the debate and drawing additional criticism toward the couple.