USA where equality and unbiased treatment towards individuals is something that is bragged about, has witnessed another incident of racism. Hyderabadi actress Avantika is being trolled on the basis of her ethnicity on social media. When the rumors of her, being considered for the role of “Rapunzel” for the live-action adaptation of “Tangled” surfaced, platforms like TikTok started flooding with racial comments describing how she doesn’t deserve to play the part.
Though Disney has confirmed no such thing, but some fan accounts claim that Avantika is screen-testing for the said role. These claims have no basis yet online audiences have started dividing themselves. Some fans have embraced the idea but on the other side of the spectrum, some are outraged by the mere thought of it.
“rapunzel should be played by a blonde white girl”, “Rapunzel is a GERMAN folk story. Indians are not and never will be German”, On platforms like Tiktok and Instagram comments like these started surfacing.
Avantika Vandanapu got her big break in the West through “Mean Girls” and her looks were cherished by the fans. After this entire incident, her Instagram was also flooded with hate comments like, “disgusting” and, “don’t ruin tangled.” One comment said, “You’re going to be the worst Rapunzel in history”.
Some tried to establish the logic that casting an Indian woman as Rapunzel would be like casting white women in the roles of non-white Disney princesses like “Mulan” and Tiana from “Princess and the Frog.”
