Shah Rukh Khan attended the opening session of the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival along with Rani Mukerji, Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. The Indian superstar spoke on stage about the dangers of social media.

He said social media has “a certain narrowness of view” and that makes the collective narrative “divisive and destructive”.

“Social media is often given a certain narrowness of view that limits human nature to its lower self. I read somewhere that negativity increases the consumption of social networks and thus increases their commercial value. Such efforts close down the collective narrative, making it divisive and destructive,” said Shah Rukh Khan.

“Contrary to the belief that the proliferation of social media will negatively affect cinema, I believe that cinema now plays an even more important role… Cinema reveals the vulnerability of human nature by telling stories in their simplest form as they are experienced,” he added.

This statement comes at a time when Shah Rukh Khan’s upcoming film ‘Pathaan’ has become the target of memes and jokes. Trolls said derogatory things about the songs that were released before the release of the movie. The film’s lead actress Deepika Padukone came under fire for wearing a bikini in one of the songs from the film.

Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan is the brand ambassador for West Bengal and has been attending the inaugural ceremonies of the Kolkata International Film Festival for the past few years. At the event, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did not hesitate to express her love for the actor and said that she is tying the ‘rakhi’ with Shah Rukh.