Malaysian star Janna Nick attacked online for naming movie character Lisa Blackpig

Janna Nick briefly quit all social media platforms and made a police report on Feb 21, 2021.
Janna Nick briefly quit all social media platforms and made a police report on Feb 21, 2021.PHOTO: JANNANICK/INSTAGRAM

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian star Janna Nick has incurred the wrath of K-pop fans after naming a character Lisa Blackpig in a movie she directed.

The 25-year-old singer-actress, whose real name is Nurul Jannah Muner, briefly quit all social media platforms and made a police report on Sunday after fans of Blackpink’s Lisa (right) began calling for her to be cancelled.

Her Twitter and work Instagram accounts are still deactivated, but her personal Instagram most recently had a post on Tuesday.

Blackpink fans were massively offended that her teenage romcom Delen, which premiered on TV in Malaysia on Feb 13, had a character named after singer Lisa.

Harnessing the power of Blinks, as Blackpink fans are known, they started an online campaign to cancel the Kimchi Untuk Awak (Kimchi For You) actress, who was making her directorial debut.

Newcomer Annie Mosha played the character Lisa Blackpig, described as an "attention seeker" on Janna Nick Studio's Instagram account.

The #JannaNickIsGoingToJailParty hashtag began trending on Twitter on Sunday, even as an old Instagram Story from 2018 came to light, adding fuel to fire.

In it, Nick is seen in a hair salon, bleaching her hair blonde. Fellow actress Sharifah Sakinah, who is also present, asks: "That's the dead one, right?"

She appears to be referring to K-pop boyband Shinee's Jonghyun, who had committed suicide in 2017. The two then burst into laughter.

Nick later issued an 11-minute apology, swearing on the Quran that she didn't hear Sakinah's comment as the salon was noisy, but that did not appease K-pop fans.

Malaysian K-pop fans have jumped in to the fray.

On Twitter, @myofficialblink, which has more than 4,000 followers and calls itself the biggest Blackpink fanbase in Malaysia, wrote: "In our context, pig/babi is literally an offensive term used to mock or devalue or someone. That fact that she did this to gain some cheap publicity for her flop studio is very low. De-platform her, every films and dramas of hers."

On Tuesday (Feb 23), Nick broke her silence in an interview with Malaysian news portal Gempak: "Personally, I'm okay with no social media around. Though, I also have commitments with clients. Fortunately, they understand (my current situation) and we'll just wait until everything is settled."

As for the police report, she said: "I'll leave it to the prosecution for legal action, because our country has laws."