The latest debutant of the entertainment industry is none other than Junaid Khan who happens to be the son of the legendary Aamir Khan; the latter starred in Maharaj, a direct-to-OTT release. Junaid has certainly garnered explicit popular response for his performance in period drama as Karsandas Mulji advocate of the nineteenth century, however, all the hoopla Maharaj has been able to generate most of the time is in the wake of what can be dubbed as somewhat ‘provocative’ subject matter.
Maharaj’s Charan Seva scene
Malhotra P Siddharth’s Maharaj saw Shalini Pandey in the role of Kishori. On the other hand, getting the character of Maharaj was Jaideep Ahlawat, the actor of Jaane Jaan. One of the scenes in the film has recently gone viral wherein Kishori, played by Shalini, is in a subservient position of Charan seva to Maharaj played by Jaideep. Many people have been left uncomfortable by the fact that the actual practice and not something from one’s imagination is portrayed on screen.
Animal’s “lick my shoe” scene
Animal is a forthcoming Indian action-drama film directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga and starring Ranbir Kapoor on one of its key tiers; the film broke many records concerning box office becoming one of the most successful films of 2023. However, as it was voiced by many, director Sandeep Reddy Vanga put an unquestionable dose of heroism into the blatantly patriarchal, misogynistic, and continuously objectifying portrayal by Ranbir. One scene that enthralled the viewers — again, for all the wrong reasons, was the one in which Ranbir’s Ranvijay forces Triptii Dimri’s Zoya to lick his shoe in order to demonstrate that she has forsaken him to spy for him. Hard on the stomach, the scene is rather easy to turn into one of the most criticized segment of the film.
Kabir Singh’s slap scene
In his films, controversy and Vanga are inseparable and as far as the latter is concerned, such a situation suits the director to the ground. An incidence in the movie depicts Kabir, an angry man, slapping Preeti because he feels she is not interested as he is interested in the concept of marriage regardless of the circumstances. Surely not just this scene but the entire movie, Kabir Singh was hugely condemned for making it seem like the hero of the movie is a male chauvinist pig. The criticism however did not end it from making formidable numbers at box office.
Padmaavat’s Jauhar scene
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat was in controversy regarding one issue after another right from its production. After litigations, vandalized sets, and a change in the title from ‘Padmavati’ to ‘Padmavat’, the Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh starrer along with Shahid Kapoor and Jim Sarbh was released in January 2018. The climax of the film, however, opened yet another Pandora’s Box as Deepika’s character Rani Padmavati along with the hundreds of women in the palace commit ‘jauhar’ — or self Emmolative to escape from the clutches of Ranveer’s nasty Alauddin Khilji. The critics who focused this scene raised pole, and our women are objectified and reduced to being the holders of honour while men go to fight, a contrivance that can perfectly fit today’s adaptation. The sort of triumph depicted in the scene by Bhansali, seems to have provoked the anger of many people.
Udta Punjab’s drug use scene
The third Shahid Kapoor movie in this list, ‘Udta Punjab’ directed by Abhishek Chaubey was an intense drama on the harms of drug addiction prevalent in Punjab. One of the scenes in question that is rather explicit depicts Tommy Singh, played by Shahid Kapoor, as a man who is addicted to cocaine. Such was the impotent back and forth that at the time of the film’s release the drug abuse montages were being labelled as way too raw, by many, of course, because of the problems with censorship. Several however, also supported the use of the montages saying that the graphic content was necessary to pass the message across.
