When Twitter trolls took a toll on Bollywood celebs

Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Rishi Kapoor and Imran Khan

Be it for promoting films, engaging with fans or speaking their mind about an issue, Bollywood stars use social media to their advantage. But since the virtual medium hardly has a filter, the celebs often invite unwanted attention from the troll brigade - or overzealous fans like in Salman Khan's case. Perturbed by abusive comments against his 'competitors' Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, he lashed out at his fans and threatened to quit Twitter.

"Messed up fighting over yr hero's vit each other. Make this journey beautiful, dint sign up fr this ugly twitter war n not a part of it . Continue it n I vil b off twitter. Came here to spread love, share sm thoughts hv fun vit fans not for them to insult my fraternity," read his post. He went on to add that he couldn't care less for star rankings and if his fans wanted him to stay on Twitter, they shouldn't speak ill of his "friends" SRK and Aamir. Read Full Story

hitlist takes a look at other celebrities who also faced online barbs and decided to bid adieu to social media...

Shah Rukh Khan

The superstar, who usually gets to have the last word in every conversation courtesy his wit and sense of humour, has also attracted a lot of negative attention online. In one of his controversial interviews in 2013, he spoke about how he was asked by a politician to leave the country and "return to his land" due to his religion. This led to a huge debate and Shah Rukh took to Twitter to express his anguish, stating: "Sad, I read so much judgments, jingoism, religious intolerance on the net and I use to think, this platform will change narrow mindedness, but no! (sic)". SRK then distanced himself from the site for a few months only to return when his director friend Anubhav Sinha persuaded him.

Rishi Kapoor

Known to wear his heart on his sleeve, the veteran star is a hit on social media for his witty as well as sensible take on various issues. Often, the trivia that he shares about himself or his family becomes a talking point. However, he faced the wrath of a section of Twitterati in March this year when he called singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya and TV actor Ajaz Khan as "bunch of idiots and non-starters" - the duo had condemned Salman Khan's conviction in the 2002 hit-and-run case with some rather illogical and insensitive posts. Kapoor came under scathing attack and decided to delete his microblogging account. He wrote: "Too much negativity, abusive language and disregard for seniors. Will retire from Twitter coz it has only given me grief (sic)." But thanks to filmmaker Sajid Khan's intervention in the form of a 'long chat', he reconsidered his decision. Read Full Story

Anurag Kashyap

Never one to pull his punches, this filmmaker signed out of Twitter as he was upset over his production 'The Lunchbox' (2013) not being chosen as India's official entry to the Oscars. The Film Federation of India had selected Gyan Correa's Gujarati film 'The Good Road' for the prestigious award that year. "Bye bye twitter, Enough feeding the wannabe journals (sic)," he had written. However, before the release of his much hyped film 'Bombay Velvet' (which didn't do well at the box office), he made a comeback on the social networking site. Read Full Story

Imran Khan

The young actor, who attributed his presence on social media to filmmaker Karan Johar, initially seemed to enjoy connecting with his fans and vent his opinions about all that matters. A few months after joining Twitter, he apparently got tired of fans posing personal queries and exit the virtual medium permanently. He quit Twitter, just days before the promotions of Break Ke Baad (2010) was scheduled to begin. "It has been a lot of fun and I'm thankful to everyone for all the good times. I think what it boils down to, is that I just don't feel Twitter is right for me," he was then quoted as saying.