Amruta Fadnavis, singer and wife of Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, has received severe backlash after fans of Lionel Messi complained that she had disrespectfully tried to take a selfie with him.
In videos of the interaction that have since gone viral, Fadnavis can be seen chewing gum and brazenly walking past footballer Luis Suarez to take a selfie with Messi—without even asking for his permission.
The interaction took place at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, one of the venues for the second-last leg of Messi's GOAT Tour in India.
The video also shows that Suarez, one of Messi's long-time friends and FC Barcelona teammate, was rudely left out of the selfie, which has also enraged fans. Rodrigo De Paul, another prolific Argentine football player and Messi's friend, was also reportedly excluded from the selfie.
While Messi, Rodrigo De Paul and Luis Suarez greeted the fans at the stadium, Devendra Fadnavis and Sachin Tendulkar remained on a specially prepared stage.
The Maharashtra CM was also ridiculed for felicitating Ajay Devgn and Tiger Shroff in the presence of one of the best football players in the world.
What netizens said
In addition to the strong booing from the enraged (but civil) stadium crowd, netizens have widely criticised Amruta Fadnavis online.
"Your attitude looks like Messi has come to take a picture with you," an X user wrote.
"Finally someone managed to tackle de paul and got away with it," another X user quipped.
"Amruta completely ruined it for me. Pura chipak ke khadi thi selfie ke liye pagal aurat (The whole time, the mad woman stuck to him for a selfie)," a Redditor wrote.
Comment
byu/Phantomm7 from discussion
inmumbai
"A once-in-a-lifetime moment with Messi reduced to a chewing-gum selfie for clout," an X user lamented.