Row Surrounding Kiran Rao, Aamir Khan, Sandeep Reddy Vanga Over Misogyny In The Films
A debate surrounding how women were portrayed in the film has popped up recently to the limelight, with a row erupted among director Sandeep Reddy Vanga, actor Aamir Khan and his ex-wife Kiran Rao. Following the wide criticism of his movies for portraying the alleged “stalking” and the violence against women, the director Sandeep Reddy has been using his public addresses to defend his movies.
The latest row was triggered when the Animal director in one of his interviews with Dainik Bhaskar attacked Kiran Rao for one of her old remarks. Kiran Rao had accused some films of reducing the gap between stalking and wooing. In November 2023, Kiran Rao, reportedly naming Kabir Singh and Baahubali 1, said that such films included stalking as one of the most glorified forms of wooing a woman. She further noted the certain sequences of Baahubali in which the initial warrior women were delicately stripped to give her a romantic image.
Referring to the comment made by Kiran Rao, the animal director said, “Today morning, my AD showed me an article. It is of the second ex-wife of a superstar (Aamir Khan). She is saying that films like Baahubali 2 and Kabir Singh promote misogyny and stalking. I think she does not know the difference between stalking and approaching. When people read these things out of context, they tend to agree. This is entirely wrong.”
Apart from that, Mr Sandeep Reddy also dragged Aamir Khan into the discussion, asking her to first look at Aamir Khan’s movie before criticising him. He was referring to Aamir Khan’s 1990 movie Dil for its alleged misogynistic sequences “I would like to say to that woman, “Go ask Aamir Khan, “Is she like a pillar, a girl, or a firecracker?” What was that?” Then come back to me. If you remember Dil, he almost creates the situation towards an attempted rape, and it makes her realise that she was wrong. She ultimately falls in love. What is all this?” the director said during the interview.
However, reacting to Mr Sandeep Reddy’s comment, Kiran Rao said that she never named the director’s films and was speaking about the general attitude of Hindi films. Referring to Aamir Khan’s alleged portrayal of misogynistic sequences, she pointed out that the Dil actor had apologised for the problematic portrayal back then. Aamir Khan’s old video apologising for the work and advising the Hindi film industry to be more responsible were resurfaced online, with many posting it and suggesting Mr Sandeep Reddy to apologise like Aamir Khan.
