Following Mumbai Indians' second consecutive defeat in IPL 2024, Natasa Stankovic, who is the wife of team captain Hardik Pandya, is facing a vicious cyber-attack. Countless negative comments are posted under Stankovic's social media posts.
Hardik Pandya was bought from Gujarat Titans ahead of the season by the Mumbai Indians management and asked to take over the captaincy from Rohit Sharma. A club legend with the Mumbai-based outfit, the decision to strip Rohit of captaincy was not taken well by a session of the fans. Pandya was booed by fans when he took the field against Gujarat Titans for the season opener and again at Hyderabad against SRH.
Pandya himself has been trolled after he failed to hand Mumbai Indians and winning start. Pandya was in the middle of his team's run chase on both occasions but just couldn't take them past the finish line. The famous MI bowling unit's horror show against SRH, leaking 277 runs in 20 overs (highest IPL total ever) didn't help either. Although MI fought to the end valiantly, the captain's 20-ball 24 was criticised for a lack of intent.
Neither Pandya nor Natasa Stankovi have reacted to the cyberbullying yet.
Natasa Stankovic, reportedly, came to India in 2012 and started off as a model and featured in advertisements. Her first break came when she appeared in the song 'Aiyo Ji' in the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer, Satyagraha, in 2013. But the two music videos with rapper Badshah in 2014—Bandook and DJ Wale Babu—catapulted her into the limelight.
She was roped in for the eighth season of the Salman Khan-hosted reality show, Bigg Boss. It was followed by cameos and song numbers in films such as Ajay Devgn’s Action Jackson, and Tamil film Arima Nambi and Kannada flick Dana Kayonu.
In 2017, Natasa Stankovic featured in the song Mehbooba from Fukrey Returns, and also acted in Govinda’s FryDay.
The next year, she played a cameo in the Shahrukh Khan-starrer Zero, as Abhay Deol’s girlfriend.
Natasa and Pandya had a child in 2020.
In 2019, she took part in dance reality show Nach Baliye, with her ex-boyfriend Aly Goni. They were one of the finalists.
She also did a cameo in the Emraan Hashmi-starrer The Body, appearing in the song Jhalak Dikhla Jaa Reloaded.