Film critic and Film Companion founder Anupama Chopra has made a startling allegation about the wave of online trolling that targeted Alia Bhatt during the Cannes 2026 Film Festival. In a conversation with actor Shahid Kapoor, Chopra claimed that an industry insider told her the attacks were not spontaneous public sentiment but a paid campaign funded by rival actors.
The controversy erupted in late May when a viral video from the Cannes red carpet appeared to show photographers largely ignoring Bhatt as she walked past them. Social media users seized on the footage, mocking her fashion choices and questioning her global star power. The pile-on intensified across platforms, with memes, parody accounts, and coordinated threads amplifying the narrative that the Bollywood actress had been snubbed on the world stage.
Chopra, who is married to filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra and is one of India’s most respected film journalists, described the trolling as “awful, graceless” in a recorded conversation. She said a well-placed industry source confirmed to her that the campaign was orchestrated and financed. “Actors are insecure,” Chopra said, suggesting that professional jealousy drove the coordinated attacks. She did not name the actors she accused of funding the campaign, according to a report by Free Press Journal.
The timing of the allegation is notable. Bhatt is preparing for one of the biggest releases of her career with Alpha, the Yash Raj Films spy thriller set to open on July 3, and any reputational damage from the Cannes episode could have commercial implications. Bhatt herself responded to the trolling with characteristic composure. When one user wrote that “no one noticed” her at the festival, she replied on social media: “Why pity love? You noticed me.”
Several industry figures publicly defended Bhatt during the episode. Actor Sonu Sood, former actress Ameesha Patel, singer Rahul Vaidya, and television personality Aly Goni all posted messages of support. The broader Cannes 2026 red carpet had already generated its own set of controversies and talking points around Indian celebrities, with Kangana Ranaut defending Aishwarya Rai Bachchan against a separate wave of online commentary.
Shahid Kapoor, who was part of the conversation in which Chopra made the allegation, offered a measured response. “I personally never believe anything anybody says unless I am in the room or I saw it myself,” he said during a recorded interview with THR India. His reluctance to endorse the claim outright stood in contrast to Chopra’s conviction, underscoring how divisive the paid-PR allegation has become even within industry circles.
The allegation speaks to a broader pattern in the Indian entertainment industry, where paid social media campaigns have become an open secret. PR agencies in Mumbai routinely offer packages to amplify positive coverage or suppress negative narratives for their clients, and rival camps have long been suspected of weaponizing online discourse against competitors. What makes Chopra’s claim unusual is that a journalist of her stature has gone on record attributing a specific trolling episode to paid activity.
Bhatt, ranked among India’s most commercially valuable celebrities alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas, has faced periodic online backlash throughout her career, often linked to her privileged background as the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. The actress has generally avoided engaging with trolls at length, and her terse Cannes reply was consistent with that approach.
Neither Bhatt’s representatives nor any of the actors implicitly accused by Chopra have issued formal responses to the paid-campaign allegation. Film Companion has not published a follow-up statement clarifying or expanding on Chopra’s remarks. The question of whether the Cannes trolling was organic or manufactured is likely to remain a matter of speculation unless the unnamed industry source comes forward publicly.
