Currently, the Hindi film-watching audience has been divided into two segments ever since the release of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s ‘Animal’. On the one hand, there are people who are calling out the film for being extremely violent and misogynistic and are saying that such films shouldn’t be released as they impact our society negatively. But on the other hand, there are people supporting the film because it has been a huge box office hit a couple of days into its release.
Manoj Bajpayee, in an interview with Mid-Day, shared his opinion about the release of films like ‘Kabir Singh’ and addressed the backlash that it faced.
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According to him, films should not be burdened with people’s moralities and a filmmaker should be able to make the films they want to make. You may not like a film or disagree with its politics, but you cannot expect the film to be not be released at all. Because if the release of one film is hindered, there will be multiple other films that people do not agree with that are going to suffer.
“Lately what I have seen and observed is that creative work is being burdened with the people’s moralities. When it is becoming jingoistic and it is a good film, you don’t point a finger at it. When I’m doing a kissing scene, I’m not bringing Manoj Bajpayee’s morality into the scene. I’m playing the character. Kabir Singh for me is a part of the society. You want to take it the way it is, fine. You don’t want to take it the way it is, don’t watch it,” Manoj Bajpayee said.
He went on to add that once one person tries to load their morality on a film they didn’t like, someone else will load their own morality on a film that the former liked. This chain of events is going to continue.
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“Films don’t change society, films change hairstyles,” he argues.
“The moment you try to load it, burden it with your own morality, then you should be ready for all other segments of the society who are going to point fingers and try to mutilate other content which will not suit their morality. Are you ready for it? You shut down one Kabir Singh and there will be 50 other films that you’ll agree with but other segments will not agree with it and burden it with their own morality and they will start censoring it. They will start pelting stones on the theatre because those films that they don’t agree with is being shown there. So, in a society where you want films to be shown for everybody, you can be critical of it, you can be critical of the character, but you can’t be of the opinion that you should not be making this film.”
Here’s a look at the interview where Manoj Bajpayee puts across his point:
Artistic freedom or social responsibility – which side are you on?