Shanaya Kapoor On Why She Won't Quit Social Media

Shanaya Kapoor Says She Filters Hate, Won't Quit Social Media

The actor and Indinoor co-founder told the ET Entrepreneur Summit she separates useful criticism from outright abuse, even if the second kind still gets to her.

By Call Sheet10 Sept 20262 min read

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Shanaya Kapoor has decided the internet's abuse is a price worth paying for what it gives back. Speaking at the ET Entrepreneur Summit, the actor and Indinoor co-founder said she has no plans to step away from social media, even as she works on tuning out the ugliness that comes with being visible online.

Her reasoning, as she laid it out, is fairly transactional. She's asking fans to spend money on tickets to watch her films, so she figures she owes them her attention when they push back. "If I ask people to spend their hard earned money to buy movie tickets to come watch me work and come watch me on screen but I don't hear their feedback that they are giving on social media even if it hurts me a little, I'm not gonna move forward as an actor," she said, arguing that tuning out criticism while asking audiences to keep showing up simply doesn't add up for her.

That doesn't mean she reads everything with an open heart. Kapoor draws a clear line between feedback and abuse. Critique that points at what worked and what didn't, she treats as material to build on. Outright hostility sits in a separate box entirely, and she admits she hasn't cracked how to deal with it. "That is something I'm still learning to ignore," she said. "It is not something I have figured out."

Her fix isn't disengagement, it's filtering. "I filter out more than cutting the internet, I never do that," she said, framing the platform as the only practical way to stay in touch with an audience that size.

On the work front, her calendar is filling up. Kapoor is attached to a sequel to Zombie Reddy, directed by Suparn Verma, and has the Student of the Year series and JC, opposite Shujaat Saudagar, lined up as well. None of the three carries a release date yet.

For someone who debuted under heavy scrutiny over her surname, Kapoor's comments read less like a defense and more like a working rule for herself, take what's useful, let the rest go, keep showing up anyway. Whether that holds once one of these three projects actually reaches an audience is the part still left to play out.