Kaali Poster Row: Filmmaker Leena Manimekalai Says Hindutva Can Never Become India

Filmmaker Leena Manimekalai recently faced intense backlash over the poster of her movie Kaali, which depicted the goddess smoking a cigarette. Leena has now hit out at her detractors by saying that “Hindutva can never become India”.

Manimekalai took to her Twitter account earlier in the day and tweeted a photo of two people smoking while dressed in the costumes of Lord Shiva and a Hindu goddess. It must be noted that the photo bears striking similarities to her controversial poster.

As the post further fuelled a further backlash against her, Leena took to her social media account again and clarified that the image was not a scene from her documentary film, but a snapshot of real life in rural India.

The filmmaker wrote, “BJP payrolled troll army have no idea about how folk theatre artists chill post their performances. This is not from my film. This is from everyday rural India that these sangh parivars want to destroy with their relentless hate & religious bigotry. Hindutva can never become India.”

For the unversed, Leena Manimekalai has received many brickbats over Kaali poster, which shows an actress dressed as Goddess Kaali smoking and wielding an LGBTQ pride flag. It did not go down well with many people and political parties.

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However, Manimekalai has made it very clear that her documentary was about a woman strolling in the streets of Canada’s Toronto. But it continued to court controversies as several right-wing groups took offence and multiple complaints were lodged against her. This finally resulted in Canada’s Aga Khan Museum taking down the presentation of the documentary.

The original tweet with the movie poster has also been taken down by Twitter in response to a legal demand. However, the Toronto-based director has termed the move hilarious.