Tiger Shroff Denies Referring To His SOTY 2 Heroines In His 'Padding' Comment

The normally non-controversial Tiger Shroff stirred a hornet’s nest by using the word “padding” to supposedly mean the female leads, Jhanvi Kapoor and Ananya Panday, in his film Student of the Year 2. “Not so at all”, says Tiger, setting the record straight.

“I was asked what I felt about working with this heroine and that heroine. I responded saying I don’t concern myself with what’s beyond my own space, performance, function, and responsibility when I sign a project. The word ‘padding’, therefore, didn’t mean I consider women [to be] superfluous props. It applied to everything that falls beyond my own presence in a film. I would’ve used the same word for the director or the music director, without meaning to insult them”, says Tiger.

The actor is perturbed by how words are twisted these days. “I know negative news sells. So taking one word out of context, proclaiming that I called women ‘padding’ is going to make headlines. But it’s not what I meant to say. This is not the way I’d ever speak about women. I’ve been brought up in a home, where my mom is treated as a goddess. My dad would do nothing, ever, to hurt or offend my mom. And we all treat my sister as the queen of the household. Disrespecting women is not something that I’d ever consider in my attitude.”

Right now, with all the film promotions he has to do [for his next film, Munna Michael], Tiger is a bit worried about how his words would sound when suddenly highlighted on mass media. “It’s exhausting to go from one interview to another. In an unguarded moment, I may end up using the wrong word, which may at any time be amplified to create a shocking headline,” adds Tiger.

This had happened to Tiger earlier too, when he had jokingly said that he’d marry a girl who would massage his feet. “Forget about disrespecting women,” he says, “I try not to speak disrespectfully to anybody — man, woman, or transgender. And, let me tell you, as far as my regarding my heroines as ‘padding’ is concerned, the leading ladies in my films have stronger roles than me, right from Kriti Sanon in my debut film Heropanti (2014) to Shraddha Kapoor in Baaghi (2016).”