The film, Parched is in the middle of an unsavoury controversy. A lovemaking scene from the coming-of-age drama, directed by Leena Yadav, and starring Radhika Apte and Adil Hussain,was leaked online a couple of days ago and it’s been doing the rounds in social media. Prominent media outlets covered the leak in a typically sexist manner, promoting it as ‘Radhika Apte Hot Video’ and ‘Radhika Apte Sex Scene’.
Though the film has not been released in India, it is in the public domain. It is available for viewing on Netflix in France, and has been screened at various film festivals across the world. Accusations of the leak being a publicity gimmick are, therefore, baseless. Aseem Bajaj, the producer of Parched, refuted the accusations. “…We were contemplating legal action but realised that we can’t do anything about it because we don’t know who to name in the complaint. But, this is definitely not a publicity gimmick. If we are getting mileage out of it, good for us. In a way it’s helping creating awareness about the film,” he said.
Adil Hussain, who also features in the leaked video, took the media to task over its patriarchal mindset. “The most interesting aspect is that the leaked videos is titled as Radhika Apte sex scene and not as Adil Hussain sex scene. That’s because a man doing it is just another matter whereas when a woman does it, it does matter. It is only then that it becomes a sex scene. It also shows the patriarchal society that we live in. In the West, such scenes are normally shown in their films,” Adil said.
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Commenting on society’s obsession with sex, he said, “I learnt about it yesterday from Google alert and it felt bizarre in the beginning. In fact, it felt very weird. It shows how sexually obsessed a lot of people in our society are. You leak only the sex scene and no other beautiful scenes from the film. It only shows that we are extremely obsessed about sex and yet we don’t want to talk about it. We shun it, shove it under the carpet and don’t want to show it to people.”
“The person who has done it, I am sure is not a woman but a man. And it must be an Indian man,” he said, taking a guess at the culprit’s gender and nationality.
Featured Image Courtesy: movies.ndtv.com