In a recent interview with Dinathanthi, actor Vijay Sethupathi has stated that cinema is not responsible for crimes of passion, violence, and harassment of women. “Blaming cinema for the crimes against women is something I cannot accept. When the audience like something shown in cinema, they may like it, appreciate it, but they will not take those elements into their daily life. We cannot plant ideas in anyone’s mind. Those who involve themselves in such crimes may already have such intentions in them.” he said.
It must be noted that the actor’s Iraivi which released in June this year was appreciated by most critics, but came under fire for many reasons – one of them being the excessive violence portrayed in the film.
Iraivi is too violent, too loud and too long. when the men in the film were not drinking, they were murdering and going to jail.
— Shobha Warrier (@shobhawarrier) June 7, 2016
FOR ME #Iraivi , did not come across as a film with strong female characters, too much violence, twist was horrible…
— Lakshmy Ramakrishnan (@LakshmyRamki) June 6, 2016
Meanwhile, an online petition has been started by drama researcher Iswarya V against glorifying stalking, harassment, and misogyny in Tamil cinema. “Tamil films routinely promote stalking as an acceptable, even preferred way of wooing a woman,” Iswarya states in the online petition that is gathering support from movie-goers, activists, and even a few actors.
Vijay Sethupathi, who has had 6 releases this year so far, has his next film Rekka releasing on 7 October.
