After more than a month of being dormant, singer Suchithra Karthik, who became the talk of the town with her controversial tweets that included private photos of many celebrities from Kollywood, has finally opened up about what had transpired when #SuchiLeaks escalated beyond reason for those two weeks in March.
In an exclusive interview with The Times of India, Suchithra (aka Suchi) clarified that her account had been hacked since February 19. “Although it has been more than two (difficult) months, I still carry the pain of having put a lot of people, including family, friends, colleagues and folks in the film fraternity through immense trouble. I am extremely saddened by the events, and the fact that I had little or no control over the graphic contents on my twitter handle offers no consolation when I think of the distress it has caused to many. As far as my emotional condition that my husband mentioned, I am working on improving that, and am feeling a lot better, thank you,” she said.
When her account was hacked, her husband, former actor and stand-up comic Karthik Kumar said that she has been dealing with depression and was having a mental breakdown. The tweets on the singer’s account, however, did not corroborate her husband’s explanation; with the posts accusing actor Dhanush, composer Anirudh Ravichander, and other celebrities of doing things to Suchitra.
“We managed to shut the account down by reaching out to the Head of Twitter India (our ‘deactivate account’ requests were of no avail), which was the primary goal that moment. Cybercrime had been notified, but the FIR can be filed anytime — it was important to first protect the integrity of people whose names were getting compromised in the tweets, and I stand by that decision. On March 2, it was clear that I was having a serious breakdown. At that point, it was a call taken by my family to get me to immediate medical care as opposed to a Police Station,” she told ToI.
The singer/RJ, in an interview with Deccan Chronicle in March, said: “I’ve really had enough. This is the work of someone who’s had a grudge against me for over a decade now, and they want to kick me when I’m down. They actually went as far ahead as hiring a company in Chennai to hack! Thankfully, I have a private cyber-investigator on my side who’s helped me out. But the series of systematically-planned attacks have gotten on my nerves. Ask anyone in the industry if I’m actually capable of posting such crazy things? But I got no support from the industry also,” she declared.
However, what had left many baffled was when Karthik Kumar gave two different pictures of the events that unfolded. When it first began, he called it something entirely personal.
Suchis activity on twitter has no factual basis guys. The issue is different & personal. Pls extend understanding and let be for the while.
— Karthik Kumar (@evamkarthik) February 23, 2017
He followed this with the claim that Suchi’s account had been hacked, and that the tweets were not her work. Karthik Kumar even released a video in which he alluded to Suchi’s ’emotional state’ and apologised for her actions.
— Karthik Kumar (@evamkarthik) February 24, 2017
Early this month, Karthik uploaded a video of the couple in the USA, with an odd remark that the whole thing will emerge as “good material” for one of his stand-up comedy acts. Commenting on this, Suchi told ToI about how her husband likes to look at things with the “lens of humour” while also saying that a breakdown is not fun.
“A breakdown is no fun and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. It sounds like an excuse of a word, but it is real, raw, and what it puts you through is brutal. It is intensely confusing…you question, believe, mistrust and fear everything simultaneously, and the state of helplessness and paranoia only spirals deeper with stimuli. It feels like the end of the world and it has taken me six weeks of very hard work to emerge from it. For most people with no access to empathetic medical care — it can be excruciating.”
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