She was crying, so I sent her: Ajay on Nysa going to salon after granddad's death

Actor Ajay Devgn has addressed for the first time how his daughter Nysa (14) was trolled after his father’s death earlier this year. Talking to Zoom in a joint interview with his Tanhaji co-star Saif Ali Khan, Ajay said that it was he who sent Nysa to the salon to take her mind off things.

After his father, action director Veeru Devgn died in May, several Bollywood celebrities flocked to Ajay’s home to pay their final respects. A day later, Nysa was spotted stepping out of a local salon by the paparazzi.

Her pictures went viral and she was mercilessly trolled. Addressing the bullying, Ajay said Nysa didn’t want to leave the house in the first place. “They (trolls) really don’t know what’s going on. I’ll give you an example, I never spoke about this. When I lost my father, second day, the kids were very upset. Nysa was crying all day and people were home, there were a lot of people. You know how the atmosphere is. I called her, I said stop being upset. Because you have to, they are kids. ‘Why don’t you go out, have something and come, eat something and come or things like this. She said I don’t want to go. I told her you please go, there will be a change of mood. They are here, we are handling people, we are doing it. You just go out. She didn’t know where to go, she left and she went to a parlour. I said go get a hair wash or something. They have clicked pictures of her entering a parlour and they have trolled her. ‘Grandfather just died and she’s in the parlour’. What right do they have? I am sending her so that she feels better, she’s going through a trauma. What right do they have to say that? It’s ridiculous. And then she’s come back howling. By the time she got back home, the pictures were out already.”

“People are clicked everywhere, there are some rubbish comments that come. It harms children. What have they done wrong? 9, 10, 15 year old kids and you’ve started judging them,” he added.

Saif, who is no stranger to his children getting hounded by the paparazzi, added that his son Taimur also doesn’t like being photographed. He said that thankfully, the photographers have stopped flocking to their home for pictures of Taimur. “It was becoming a bit of a nuisance to the people that we live with, other neighbours, this and that. They very kindly agreed that they won’t be outside the house,” he said.

Ajay and Saif’s Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior releases on January 10. Ajay Devgn is seen as the brave warrior Tanhaji Malasure in the film while Saif plays the antagonist, Uday Bhan, a Rajput official who works for Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

The movie also features Kajol, Neha Sharma, Jagapathi Babu and Pankaj Tripathi in the pivotal roles.