Shahid Kapoor doesn’t do rehearsed answers. When The Right Angle host Sonal Kalra asked him how he handles trolling, he didn’t smile and say it doesn’t bother him. He said something far more honest — and far more useful. With O’Romeo now in theatres, Shahid arrived at this interview with something to say, and he said it without flinching.
Shahid Kapoor on Trolling: Nobody Is Truly Unaffected
Shahid was direct from the first sentence. “Anybody who says I’m not affected, I don’t know whether they’re living under a rock,” he said. That single line cuts through years of celebrity PR conditioning. Most actors perform invincibility. Shahid simply refused to.
However, he quickly added the flip side. Saying trolling deeply wounds you is equally dangerous. So the real skill, he argued, is finding the middle ground. You stay connected to how your audience feels. But you don’t hand them control over how you feel about yourself.
That balance is harder to maintain than it sounds. Especially when the internet never sleeps.
Why Shahid Believes You Must Earn the Right to Speak
This is where the interview shifted into a different gear. Shahid switched to Hindi and spoke with quiet but firm conviction. “Aapke bolne ki aukat honi chahiye, tabhi muh kholna chahiye,” he said. Translation: you must have earned the standing to speak before you open your mouth.
He connected this directly to his childhood. Growing up around serious artists, he watched how people carried themselves in the presence of real talent. Nobody spoke carelessly. There was awareness. There was reverence. Opinions carried weight because the people holding them had done the work.
Today, that culture has largely collapsed. Furthermore, social media has replaced accountability with access. Anyone can say anything, anytime, about anyone. Shahid’s point is that easy access to a platform does not automatically earn you the right to use it destructively.
That observation stings because it is accurate.
What Trolling Actually Tells Us, According to Shahid
Here is where his argument becomes genuinely sharp. Shahid didn’t just push back at trolls. Instead, he offered a psychological diagnosis of them. “You cannot be negative unless you are insecure or scared or afraid or unhappy,” he said.
Moreover, he went further. “It really reflects how the inner world of those people is very, very sad.” In other words, online cruelty is less an attack on the target and more a broadcast of the attacker’s own emotional state.
This isn’t a new idea. But hearing it from someone who has survived sustained public criticism — across career dips, films that underperformed, and controversies he didn’t entirely escape — gives it earned weight. Shahid has been written off before. He has also come back before. So when he speaks about negativity, he speaks from experience, not theory.
The Boxing Metaphor That Sums It All Up
Shahid wrapped his advice in a metaphor that lands cleanly. “A good fighter knows how to stand up again,” he said. Take criticism on the chin. Learn from it. Then get back up. Don’t crumble. Don’t rage. Just stand up and keep going.
Additionally, he was clear about one non-negotiable. “Always back yourself, man.” Not arrogance. Not denial. Simply the decision to not let outside noise become your internal voice.
Because ultimately, as Shahid put it, you must fill yourself with positivity before you can perform at your best. That applies to actors on a film set. It also applies to anyone navigating the daily gauntlet of social media judgment.
Why This Conversation Goes Beyond Bollywood
Shahid Kapoor is not the first celebrity to address trolling. Nevertheless, few have framed it this precisely. Most deflect. Some perform hurt. Shahid, instead, offered a layered argument — about earned opinions, psychological projection, and the discipline of self-belief.
Furthermore, this conversation matters beyond film promotions. An entire generation is growing up on platforms that reward reaction over reflection. The pressure to seek external validation is literally engineered into every app. Therefore, what Shahid described — knowing how you feel about something before the world tells you how to feel — is almost a radical act in 2025.
As O’Romeo opens, Shahid Kapoor arrives not just with a new film. He arrives with a perspective shaped by real experience. That, at least, is something the comment section cannot take away from him.
Whether his film delivers at the box office will be debated soon enough. But this conversation will stay relevant long after the opening weekend numbers come in.
