Vijay has said he is against the culture of abusing women for expressing their views on social media and other online platforms. “I respect women a lot. Everybody has the right to criticize anyone’s film. I believe no women should be spoken of in a demeaning way no matter what happens. We all have to praise womanhood,” Vijay said in a statement.

His statement comes days after his fans abused and sexually harassed a woman journalist, Dhanya Rajendran, on Twitter.

On Wednesday, Dhanya Rajendran lodged a complaint with Cyber Crime Branch of police in Chennai against four anonymous Twitter handles.

Vijay’s fans targeted the journalist after she tweeted that she walked out of a screening of Vijay’s film “Sura” a few years ago and compared the bad experience with Shah Rukh Khan starrer “Jab Harry Met Sejal”.