Bollywood stars joined netizens to voice outrage on Monday after a leading English daily tweeted an inappropriate photograph of actress Deepika Padukone’s cleavage the day before, and then tried to clear the air by stating the tweet was meant to be a compliment.

Even as #IStandWithDeepika Padukone trended over most of Monday, the daily removed the tweet about a dress Deepika wore at the trailer launch of her film Chennai Express last year.

Ranveer Singh, Nimrat Kaur, Arjun Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Karan Johar, Huma Qureshi, Homi Adajania and Dia Mirza are among the Bollywood celebrities who have expressed support for Deepika and lambasted @TOIEntertain, which tweeted the photo with a caption that said: “OMG: Deepika Padukone’s cleavage show.”

The top-angle snapshot of Deepika’s low-cut, Anamika Khanna-designed dress at the trailer launch was part of a photostory about dressing faux-pas.

The normally cool Deepika’s response was an angry one. “YES! I am a Woman. I have breasts AND a cleavage! You got a problem!!??” she tweeted, triggering off abundant support on the Net.

Deepika Padukone took offence to a tweet drawing attention to her cleavage-baring dress

“Supposedly India’s ‘LEADING’ newspaper and this is ‘NEWS’!!??… Don’t talk about Woman’s Empowerment when YOU don’t know how to RESPECT Women!” she added.

“@deepikapadukone way to let ’em know! #LikeABoss @TOIEntertain TUM se yeh ummeed nahi thi (sic),” wrote actor Ranveer Singh, Deepika’s rumored boyfriend.

The Lunchbox actress Nimrat Kaur expressed shock over the daily defending its stance by saying the tweeted picture and its caption was meant to be a compliment.

“Dear @TOIEntertain… with this “compliment’, I shudder to think who this ‘everyone’ is you’re reaching out to?” she wrote.

Nimrat’s reaction was to the newspaper’s tweet stating their reason for carrying the picture: “You look so great that we want to make sure everyone knew! 🙂 (sic).”

Ayushmann Khurrana added a hint of the caustic.

“Dear yellow journalism, a star showed you that some of you are green. Dear yellow journalism, yeh-lo (sic)!” he wrote.

Tweets have kept pouring in at #IStandWithDeepika Padukone ever since.