With hashtags like ‘Arrest Leena Manimekalai’ trending and police complaints filed by leaders within the Hindu group, the poster for the documentary “Kaali” has induced controversy over its depiction of the goddess.
With hashtags like ‘Arrest Leena Manimekalai’ trending and police complaints filed by leaders within the Hindu group, the poster for the documentary “Kaali” has induced controversy over its depiction of the goddess.
Below assault for a poster of her documentary “Kaali” exhibiting the goddess smoking and holding an LGBTQ flag, filmmaker Leena Manimekalai on Monday stated she is going to proceed to make use of her voice fearlessly until she is alive.
The poster has led to a social media storm with the hashtag ‘Arrest Leena Manimekalai’, that the filmmaker is hurting non secular sentiments and a member of a gaggle going by the identify ‘Gau Mahasabha’ saying he has filed a grievance with Delhi Police.
In response to complaints obtained by leaders within the Hindu group in Canada, the Indian Excessive Fee in Canada lately issued a press launch urging the Canadian authorities to withdraw all provocative materials relating to the “disrespectful depiction of Hindu Gods” as seen on the poster of the movie.
In response to the assaults, the Toronto-based director hit again to say she was prepared to pay along with her life.
“I’ve nothing to lose. Until the time I reside, I want to reside with a voice that speaks what I consider with out concern. If the worth for that’s my life, it may be given,” Manimekalai wrote in a Twitter put up in Tamil in response to an article on the controversy.
The Madurai-born filmmaker had shared the poster of “Kaali” on the microblogging web site on Saturday and stated the movie was a part of the ‘Rhythms of Canada’ section on the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto.
Manimekalai additionally urged individuals to observe the movie to know the context behind the poster.
“The movie is concerning the occasions throughout Kaali’s strolls via the streets of Toronto metropolis one wonderful night. In the event that they watch the film, they’ll put the hashtag ‘love you Leena Manimekalai’ quite than ‘Arrest Leena Manimekalai’,” she added in reply to a different article.
Ajay Gautam, a member of the ‘Gau Mahasabha’, despatched reporters a replica of his police grievance towards the filmmaker for allegedly presenting the goddess in a “derogatory and offensive method” thereby hurting “non secular sentiments of tens of millions of devotees together with the complainant”.
A senior police officer from the Cyber Cell instructed PTI they’re but to obtain the grievance.
A number of Twitter customers slammed Manimekalai.
Manimekalai, who made her characteristic directorial debut with 2021’s “Maadathy – An Unfairy Story”, is not the primary filmmaker to seek out himself in hassle over non secular references.
In 2017, as an example, filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan courted controversy over the title of his Malayalam film “Sexy Durga”, which explored non secular divides in Kerala society. The movie was later rechristened “S Durga”.
Final yr, Prime Video’s political saga “Tandav” was at the center of trouble for a scene depicting Lord Shiva in a university theater programme. The scene was ultimately dropped and the streamer issued an unconditional apology.
“Kaali” is but to be proven to Indian audiences.