Then came the nudes.

Then came the nudes. On Saturday, explicit photographs and video clips spilled out of Suchitra's (now-defunct) Twitter account, claiming that these were pictures of Dhanush and his friends, music composer Anirudh Ravichander, the actresses Andrea Jeremiah and Trisha Krishnan, and a few newcomers. The first few pictures, the ones which look real and feature recognizable faces, are mostly pictures of people partying - nothing explicit, nothing shocking. But the allegations created a sinister context. "See what your heroes are doing," shouted these posts, alongside those of nudes that could belong to absolutely anybody. Immediately, #Suchileaks began trending worldwide. At the time of writing this column, hundreds of fake Suchitra Twitter accounts are out there, abusing the hashtag to send out blurry porn clips and claiming they feature a certain actor or actress. There may or may not be fire, but the smoke is blinding.

The situation with Suchitra herself is troubling. She has since spoken to Sun TV and said her account had been hacked, and she has deactivated it following her lawyer's advice - a statement which is at odds with the story told by her family about her mental condition. New reports suggest she might be flown to London for further treatment. Either way, be these inane tweets the result of a vicious hack or health-related stress, the singer seems - to me - to be a victim here. The nudes will be shrugged off as doctored, while Suchitra is likely to be stigmatized more harshly by an industry that dislikes secrets made public.