Sahiba Bali calls Tamannaah Bhatia controversy fully false, flags clickbait

Sahiba Bali denied making remarks that reports claimed Tamannaah Bhatia had opposed. She called the narrative fabricated or edited and warned against online clickbait.Sahiba Bali reacted to fake Tamannaah Bhatia screenshot amid online trolling. (Credit: Instagram/@sahibabali @tamannaah)New Delhi,Oct 15, 2026 09:00 ISTSahiba Bali has dismissed as fake a viral screenshot that claimed actor Tamannaah Bhatia had objected to her remarks about women, religion and protests. Bali said the purported exchange was fabricated and that no disagreement had taken place between them.The screenshot, which circulated on Reddit and Instagram, combined an old post shared by Bali with a doctored comment purportedly from Bhatia’s official account. It triggered polarised debate before the authenticity of the exchange had been established.Responding to the claims, Bali shared a selfie on Instagram Stories and wrote: “Wow, woke up to a fabricated and fully FALSE narrative built around me saying something (which I never have) and a fellow female talent apparently opposing me (which she never did). We both know none of this is true, and it’s either AI or edited. Brother, it’s too crazy how people will spend so much time to use your face as clickbait? Anyway, don’t believe everything you see.”She added, “There’s a lot more to life than all this.” Instagram/@sahibabali Check out the viral post:Tamannaah Bhatia is becoming my fav day by day Sahiba Bali has a history of taking digs at Hindus. First, she laughed at Kashmiri Pandits and now she was using Maa Durga to target Delhi Police. Tamannaah literally cooked her for asking people not to link the Kashmir genocide with peacefuls, but now she's the one linking brutality with Hindu festivals. You won't see Hindus bringing up Osama bin Laden before festivals of peacefuls, but somehow Hindus are the oppressors. Really great to see Tamannaah doing a 9 day fast and standing up for her faith— Suprvirat (@MostlyKohli) October 13, 2026The doctored screenshot falsely portrayed Bhatia as publicly rebuking Bali over remarks linked to a festival. The fake comment questioned why religious deities were being brought into the conversation. Bali said the comment had either been generated using artificial intelligence or edited to create sensational clickbait. She maintained that she had not made the comments attributed to her and that Bhatia had not opposed her.The old post used in the fabricated screenshot drew a parallel between the worship of Goddess Durga and the alleged crackdown on women protesters during demonstrations against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. It questioned why society celebrates a goddess for her strength and fury but struggles to accept women who express anger, resist injustice and demand their rights.The trolling following fake postBali had earlier shared screenshots of abusive comments and threats she said she received. Some users appeared to have repeatedly sent her the same abusive messages.Expressing exhaustion over the hostility and the risks of speaking out, Bali wrote: “I heard a lot this year. For absolutely no reason. I don’t support hatred of any kind. There might be narratives made which are manufactured — I address differences with compassion and not divide. I hope they can too. There’s too much hate in this world. The cost of voicing injustice is danger to livelihood and safety. I honestly am done. They won, I lost. I’m sorry.”In another post, Bali said she faced abuse whether she spoke about politics and religion or remained silent. “Before I leave, let me tell you this: If I say something, I get abused. If I stay silent, I get abused. If I dissent against the government, I get abused. If I praise the government, I get abused,” she wrote.Bali said she was not a supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party, although former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was her favourite politician. She described the Congress as a weak Opposition but praised former prime minister Manmohan Singh for his contribution to India’s economy around 1991.She said she respected the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India but did not support the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. While she had supported the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, she said she would decide how to vote. “My vote will decide that, not the abuses or fear from strangers,” she wrote.Bali also said Indian Muslims should not be treated as outsiders and were as Indian as anyone else. Speaking about her religious beliefs, she said she wore a rudraksh for protection and visited a gurdwara to express gratitude.She added that she did not hate anyone except criminals and believed rapists deserved capital punishment. She also described the Cockroach Janta Party as a pressure group, before ending on a lighter note by saying Delhi’s food was better than Mumbai’s.Message about social media algorithmsA day before writing about the online abuse, Bali shared a message about access to information and the tendency of people to believe material that supports their existing views.“We are living in the most information-rich era in human history. Knowledge is everywhere, most of it free. And yet, somehow, people have never been this confidently ignorant. We have unlimited access to information, but an alarming number of people use it only to find evidence for what they already want to believe,” the post read.She captioned it: “Our algorithm will always show you what you want to see.”Bali is a content creator and has worked in films including Laila Majnu, Amar Singh Chamkila and Dear Maya.Protests and allegations of police excessesThe protests in Delhi sought the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in voter list revisions. They also led to allegations of police excesses.Several women protesters alleged that police personnel manhandled, beat and harassed them during detention. Women journalists covering the demonstrations also accused police officers of sexual harassment, prompting the Delhi Police Crime Branch to investigate the complaints.- Ends