Daily Mail faces Indian fans' fury for not recognising Deepika

Daily Mail maybe a champion of scandalous headlines on Hollywood celebrities, but this time the UK daily hit the headlines in India for not recognising a Bollywood superstar, which for many Indians, is akin to an insult.

Indian actor Deepika Padukone is in Los Angeles shooting for her Hollywood debut 'xXx' opposite Vin Diesel.

The actress bonded with ace tennis player Novak Djokovic recently during his IPTL (International Premier Tennis League) stint.

The duo was spotted last week exiting from celebrity hot-bed The Nice Guy in Los Angeles as reported by dailymail.co.uk.

The site broke the story but failed to recognise Deepika, calling her Djokovic's 'female companion'.

People could be forgiven for not knowing her, but Daily Mail which thrives on celebrity gossip, has been lambasted by Deepika's fans and media for not knowing their female superstar.

One such headline reads: "Dear Daily Mail, the 'female companion' you spotted with Djokovic is our superstar Deepika Padukone."

Another one reads, "Oops! UK daily FAILS to recognise Deepika Padukone with Novak Djokovic."

Throughout the article, Daily Mail has made references to Deepika by calling her 'impeccably turned-out friend', 'leggy brunette', 'the pretty lady', saluting her beauty.

Misplaced Anger

This jingoistic attack on the UK daily is unnecessary. It magnifies the point that India, with the second largest population in the world, has only a handful of stars recognised worldwide.

The bitter truth is that Deepika may be successful in India, but with 'xXx' she is only taking baby steps to worldwide stardom and nobody beyond India knows her - yet.

One Twitter user has a point that needs to be highlighted and silence all superfluous reaction.

Suprateek Chatterjee said: "...Ask average Indian journo to tell difference b/w David Bowie and Tilda Swinton."

Social Media Outrage

The English Daily's comment section has been littered with angry posts – some abusive, others giving her bio in short.

Freedom_Indian wrote: Hahaha Daily Mail u need to do more homework and understand about rest of world. The lady is one of the highest paid leading ladies of Indian cinema called Bollywood - Deepika Padukone (Daughter of famed Indian badminton star Prakash Padukone)..."

Another commenter wrote, "Shame on you, u should be aware of what is going on around the world. Deepika Padukone has 30.9M fans on Facebook six times the tennis player (sic)."

On Twitter too fans were up in arms against the daily and Deepika Padukone was one of the top trending topics on Twitter in India.

"Daily Mail - 'The leggy brunette', 'Female companion', 'Pretty Lady' - that's an Indian superstar (sic)."

One tweet reads, "Surprising that Daily Mail couldn't recognize Deepika Padukone, though she's quite popular now, even entered Hollywood (sic)."

Another tweet reads, "Djokovic spotted with Deepika Padukone... Daily Mail describes her as an (anonymous) leggy brunette... funny piece (sic)."

Someone wrote in disbelief, "Deepika Padukone spotted with Djokovic. Daily Mail fails to identify the XXX star, refers to her as 'female companion', How?! (sic)."

Hellsangel205 tried to reason out the outrage, "I guess it was just an honest mistake. Deepika Padukone is famous only in India as a Bollywood actress movies. Don't make it an issue of knowing Novak and not her. Novak’s a champion who has won accolades all around the world, hence that may be a cause aiding in him being recognisable."

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