When Rachita Ram's birthday bash went live on the internet, a clip of fans pulling her cheek sent shockwaves across Kannada cinema circles. The selfie‑moment, filmed outside her Bengaluru home, quickly turned into a social media frenzy as the video looped over the weekend.
The clip shows a young fan, seen in the background with a camera, reaching out and tugging Rachita's cheek as he stepped away. A second fan, a few meters away, mimicked the gesture, and a third, caught on a neighbor's phone, did the same—three playful pulls in a single frame, each more enthusiastic than the last.
Rachita didn't let the moment fizzle. At a press meet the next day, she laughed off the controversy and called the gesture "child‑like affection". "My fans expressed their love without any wrong intention," she told reporters, adding that she would have stopped them if it had felt inappropriate.
Her calm response sparked a wildfire of comments: some applauded her for turning a potentially awkward moment into a celebration, others worried about fan boundaries. A trending hashtag, #CheekPullingWithRachita, saw memes of cartoon faces and fans wearing cheek‑pulling gloves.
Outside the birthday buzz, Rachita is gearing up for her Tamil debut in "Coolie", starring Rajinikanth, and she said the fan incident has reminded her to stay grounded. "People love me, and I love them back," she said, hinting that the cheek‑pulls might become a quirky part of her brand.
Soon, a behind‑the‑scenes reel of the "Coolie" set is expected to drop, with Rachita teasing that the film will have "surprises that will make you laugh, just like that cheek‑pulling moment."