Producer Chitra Vakil Sharma agrees with the outrage on ‘Kaali’ poster saying “filmmakers need to be careful”

Mumbai: Recently, the poster for the film Kaali stirred uproar since it portrayed a female dressed as the goddess, smoking. Multiple FIRs have been lodged against director Leena Manimekalai for allegedly hurting religious sensitivities.

Producer Chitra Vakil Sharma, renowned for her online shows Tandoor and Raktanchal as well as her YouTube channel Jupiter Hub, agrees with the outrage, says that filmmakers need to be careful. “In our country, everyone has their own freedom of expression. Whether it’s about expressing their views through their creativity or just simply by words, they are completely free to express themselves. But that doesn’t mean one also has the freedom to hurt other religious sentiments. The topic itself becomes all the more awful when such illogical things are being tried to justify with tags of creativity and feminism. Even the uneducated ones can understand that this is not cool at all,” she says.

She adds, “Films are made for two reasons, first is definitely the entertainment and the second is to convey any strong particular message to the mass. What kind of message do such films try to convey by hurting the religious sentiments and when the religious sentiments are being hurt, is it even entertaining anymore? Defaming any religion or its God and Goddess can never be a progressive idea. In fact, it is the most unpleasant thing one can ever do. Creativity is never obligated to the humiliation of any religion or beliefs.”

She adds, “Every filmmaker should understand this very important thing. Filmmaking, indeed, is a great responsibility. One single film has the power to change perception and lives in so many ways. You need to be very mature and sensible in terms of choosing your content and material for your film.”