Esha Gupta made headlines the last week when she dared to bare for a jaw-dropping hot photoshoot. Esha’s sultry pictures, with her posing topless in many of them, went viral, garnering thousands of likes and comments in just a few hours. However, like any other celebrity, she also attracted the attention of trolls. Within a few hours, her social media page had some very nasty and vulgar comments. But the Baadshaho actor is not surprised.

Esha opened up on her bold photoshoot, and how she is unperturbed by trolls. “In our country, women are eternally blamed. They are accused when a girl child is born, they are even accused when they are raped. So, somewhere I knew that I will also have to face a lot of heat. After all, it’s easy for some faceless and redundant people to pull a celebrity down at the first opportunity.”

She added, “I’ve done shoots like this one when I was a model. I’ve gone topless and naked, too. No one ever asked me about that. And who are these people who have ‘issues’ with my pictures? It’s my body and it’s been shot aesthetically. There’s a thin line, which if you cross, you look vulgar. No one can say my pictures are vulgar. I got more love than hate, but it’s better to be hated than to be forgotten. And right now, I’m in my best shape. Although we knew where this could lead, we thought, ‘If not now, then when?'”

Gupta, who will be next seen in Baadshaho, added that she found the pictures too beautiful to be not shared  with her fans on social media. And she called the photoshoot a liberating experience. “Men tend to have a problem if a woman goes bold. Their manhood is challenged. They are prudes; they must have even saved these pictures on their phone. And here we are in the country of Ajanta and Ellora, and Kamasutra, objecting to a woman’s photo-shoot, which she has done on her own will. So, my attitude is, ‘S***w them’, and that’s the point I wanted to make. The pictures turned out so beautiful that I didn’t want to hold them back. The thing is that I’ve been comfortable and confident about my body all along,” added Esha.

Esha was reprimanded by many on Instagram for not being Indian enough and post ‘such vulgar’ photos. But Esha says that she is not bothered about these faceless people. “I know what I’m doing. I’ve survived this industry on my terms and that’s not changing. I’m not a girl from the woods who has made it here. And for those ready to give me lessons on behaving Indian, I’m more Indian they can be. My father has served the nation and I represented it proudly on an international platform (Miss India and Miss Universe),” said the 31-year-old actor.