An innocuous tweet by Twinkle Khanna invited hostile response from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's followers, who even demanded a boycott of Akshay Kumar's films. Ironically, the spiritual leader's foundation professes peace and harmony.

Earlier this month, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar drew criticism on social media for his remark on Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousafzai. He had said,

"Nowadays there is no value to the Nobel prize. When you award it to a 16-year-old girl who hasn't done anything, what value is left? It has become a political joke."

Twinkle Khanna, who's known for her ready wit and fiercely independent views, also made what seemed like a harmless, funny barb at the spiritual leader's comment, on Twitter. Soon after, all hell broke loose as several followers of Sri Sri's Art of Living course, started trolling the actress-turned-writer. Realising that she might have stepped out of line, Twinkle was quick to delete the said tweet and apologise with another post saying, 'Didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings was meant to be a joke and am old enough to accept an error of judgement on my part (sic).'

However, a series of trolls from his followers kept pouring in, some even going to the ridiculous extent of initiating a protest and demanding that films of Twinkle's actor-husband Akshay Kumar be boycotted by their ilk.

A source observes, "It is rather surprising and disturbing that the followers of a course that presumably teaches purporting peace would resort to such lengths when someone chooses to not agree with them or their leader."