Director Alankrita Shrivastava says the middle finger on the poster of Lipstick Under My Burkha is not a symbolic gesture for the CBFC, but society in general. The film was eventually cleared to release on July 21 after a long and controversial tussle with the Censor Board.
In conversation with the Indian Express, Ekta Kapoor said it would be trivialising the issue of sexism to make it about the CBFC, which was only mirroring society in its response.
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“I have no issue with CBFC. My problem is with the society, which talks about the same thing but in its own way. So, CBFC is mirroring the society. We will trivialise this whole thing if we make it about CBFC. It’s a larger issue. If you talk to a woman she will give you at least five incidents in a day, 5-10 in a month for sure where she had to give proofs of being a ‘woman’, maybe at a male-dominated work place or when she has to try to come across as a smarter because she is good looking,” she said.
Ekta also clarified that the poster was not against men either. “So, it’s not about CBFC. It’s about an ideology, it’s not about men again. I am going to do a campaign ‘lipstick for men’. There are a lot of men who have made us the women we are today, like my father. There are many women who want a son to be born and hence put their daughter-in-law through abortion. So, it’s about the ideology not men and women,” she said.
She also said that while she found it too “arty” at first, she ended up relating to it as a woman and not just as a producer. She said it was the first film that forced her to have a really honest conversation with herself.
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“When I went to watch it, I thought it would be pretentious, very arty… But after I saw it, I felt it was a stark entertaining film. It was right there, staring me in the face and I never had a more honest conversation with myself then I had after watching the film. We are so scared to feel, that now it is our second nature to be shy about our sexual fantasies and sexual desires. The film stared at me and asked me a question. As a producer you have made financial decision but it’s time that as a woman you made a decision from your heart and I did that,” she said.
Lipstick Under My Burkha stars Konkana Sen Sharma, Ratna Pathak Shah, Aahana Kumra, Plabita Borthakur, and Vikrant Massey.
Watch the trailer here:
Pic: Facebook