On Tuesday (24th October), Bollywood star Shraddha Kapoor purchased a sleek red Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica, adding to her car collection on the occasion of Dussehra. Images of the actress posing with her new possession have been making rounds on various social media platforms.
Shraddha Kapoor, who protested against the metro car shed in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony in 2019 in a call to save the environment, is now all set to flaunt this diesel-guzzling Lamborghini worth Rs 4.04 crores.
Last Wednesday, Shraddha Kapoor was spotted driving her latest acquisition to the renowned ISKCON temple in Juhu, where she performed a puja to mark the beginning of her journey with her new vehicle. During her interaction with the media, she emphasised that the vehicle is not just a car to her, but a chariot.
The online community responded with strong criticism towards Bollywood star Shraddha Kapoor for her recent addition of this vehicle to her fleet. This backlash comes in light of her prior protests against the tree-cutting activities in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony for a metro car shed.
It is notable that Shraddha Kapoor boasts an impressive collection of luxury cars, comprising the Audi Q7, Mercedes-Benz ML, Mercedes-Benz GLA, BMW 7 series, Toyota Fortuner, Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Swift, and several others. Her new car Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica has an ARAI-rated fuel efficiency of 7 kilometres per litre of the diesel it consumes.
However, in city conditions and considering the traffic in Mumbai, the effective fuel efficiency of the car reduces to 3 to 4 kilometres per litre. Cars earlier owned by the actress are also not so much fuel-economic. Against this backdrop, she received heavy criticism from netizens for her hypocrisy.
In October 2019, she argued against cutting off trees and wrote on Instagram, “This is wrong and should not be happening” and “Mumbaikars wake up”. She also reached the protest site wearing a T-shirt on which ‘Save Aarey’ was written. She also flagged posters at the protest site.
Criticising the actress, Aparajit Bharat wrote, “Meet climate activist Shraddha Kapoor. She wanted to block the Metro Carshed in Aarey. The Metro was supposed to serve the common working class of Mumbai & ease their travelling hassles. Today, she bought a 4 Cr Lamborghini for herself. Indian version of Greta.”
Gabbar posted, “The Mileage of Lambo would be 5-6 kmpl. Madam Ji was part of the Aarey protest. Effectively delaying the public transport for millions.”
Sandeep Mali wrote, “You get paid to protest also. And that money can buy assets like the car.”
Shikhar posted, “She will use this car to reach to the next protest site.”
The Skin Doctor wrote, “Shraddha Kapoor, an environmentalist, was one of the flag bearers of the ‘Save Aarey’ campaign. Recently, She purchased a luxury sports car worth crores. These cars pollute many times more than regular cars due to extremely high power and extremely low mileage. This pattern isn’t unique to Shraddha; it’s a common reality among such page 3 environmentalists. They support causes, not because they truly believe in them or follow them in real life, but for the primary purpose of improving their public image, which, in the process, benefits their primary careers.”
Protests against Metro car shed at Aarey
The ambitious Mumbai Metro project had planned to relieved the city’s famed congestion and provide people with a mode of quick, safe and cheap transit. By reducing vehicular traffic the metro de-clogs the roads and an independent UNFCC study points to the fact that it shall reduce CO2emission by 2.6 lakh metric tons every year.
Aarey is spread over 1278 hectares of land, out which, the metro car shed will be only built on 30 Hectare of Aarey land and even within that, 5 Hectare has been kept intact for greenery. So in a nutshell, only 2% area of the entire Aarey Colony will be utilized for the proposed metro car shed.
During the Maha Vikas Aghadi rule, the ambitious Mumbai metro project that sought to enhance connectivity in the financial hub of the country and help millions of daily commuters with another avenue of public transport fell victim to a bunch of ‘environmentalists’ who protested against the construction of a metro car shed at the Aarey site in Goregaon. The protests led to abrupt halting of construction of the metro shed, but it was resumed and completed after Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis formed government in Maharashtra.