For the last few days, I have followed the discussions happening online in response to the video posted by Annapurna Sunkara called ' Telugu Cinema should change'. I would like to address a few popular responses by various people who were against the video.
1. Watch Films like entertainment : Yes, I agree films are an art which is popularly conceived for entertainment. There is no denying that. But what everybody forgets is soft power movies have on the public and positive effect or negative effect they can have on vulnerable generation just finding their feet in the world. This is worsened by the fact that we have masala movies mostly marketted as U or U/A which have vulgar regressive content in them which is watched by kids. Notice, I have not said Adult..but vulgar content. Aagadu had a gay Ashish Vidyarthi being made fun off...do you have any idea how damaging that is already to troubled LGBT rights in India, coming from such a popular star? How are fringe groups to fight for their rights when popular media like cinema keeps making fun of them, stereotyping them? Why do all the stars have movies appeasing their real life stardom if movies are just for entertainment? We have a scene in a movie pedda Rayudu where a rape victim is married off to a rapist...do not kid me if you say that scene had no impact on judgement given in rural panchayats in rural AP. In a country that is suffering from a rape problem, are rape jokes okay...arent you trivializing such a huge issue and making fun of victims by making rape a matter of fact incident? If movies do not have influence, why have NTR and MGR and so many other actors hold political clout..and why do so many parties use them during election? And as people got educated why are we seeing less and less of this? Hasn't staclking by heroes to woe heroines not led more of that in real life?
2. Criticizing Tamanna scene in Bahubali is an over action: Most popular arguement is that she is acting like a male..and Prabhas shows her she is a women and what who she is actually inside as a person. Now, who decides that she is not acting feminine...we have had warriors throughout our history who are females.....do you think they are not females? Does only superficial aspects matter? Let us agree that she is not feminine, when did it become okay to push your idea of what is feminine on women who you have barely known? And do not tell me it is a period film..,period is ambiguous and there are strong female characters in the movie.
3. Respect Ali because he is older : Crass vulgar remarks Ali makes on women, their is no inch of respect he has on women and he does that on prime time slots. Why does a person who does not respect anybody warrant a respect? Is just being old a criteria to respect a person? If so, why is pawan kalyan hitting ms narayana funny...but somebody calling out a regressive person for what he is disrespect? Hypocritical much? As long as it tickles your funny bones...anything goes? Why is ridicule comedy such a huge part of our mainstream movies? Ali makes jokes on audio functions ridiculing women among 1000's of people.... same set of people get agitated when somebody calls their favorite hero something negative...irrespective of if it is right or not ?
4. If you do not know how to make a movie, you have no right to criticize it : Do you say that to a doctor or a civil engineer who made a mistake?
5. Think before you speak in a video as it reaches lot of people and you are influencing them: And movies are reaching only 8 people?
6. Blaming whole industry is not right : Yes, that is why she did not.
I have seen many responses degrading her as well, how hard is it to be civil and consider it a dialogue and exchange view points?
Whether people agree on or it, Telugu cinema has lot to change in terms of characters women get, how elders , LGBT community are treated and shown. There is no reason to get defensive or maintain status quo..people who are criticizing it are also doing it out of love for Telugu cinema.
