My Story, a romantic comedy directed by debutante filmmaker Roshni Dinaker, released on July 7 to mixed reviews. At a press meet held in Kochi on Monday, Dinaker, who is also the film’s producer, said that the film was bearing the brunt of an ongoing negative campaign on social media against the lead actors of the film, Parvathy TK and Prithviraj Sukumaran.
“These people (trolls) are posting vulgar comments on the movie’s Facebook page, addressing Parvathy in the most abusive language. It is highly deplorable… A voice message is being circulated on WhatsApp, asking people not to watch the film in theatres… It’s not the actors who are being affected by this online attack, but me, who directed and produced this film,” said Roshni. She also said a video blog, disguised as a film review, is going around, tarnishing the film as ‘not suitable for families’. “It says the film has five kissing scenes, while it has just one. That one scene was essential to the film’s plot,” she said.
The film, shot extensively in Portugal, has the two actors playing a couple in love. Both, Parvathy and Prithviraj, are known for speaking their mind. In a sideline event at IFFK (International Film Festival of Kerala) held in last December 2017, Parvathy made a remark on actor Mammootty’s police-drama, Kasaba, calling out the film’s sexist content. Ever since, she has been targeted by the actor’s fans online. The attack grew worse to the extent that the actress had to lodge police complaints against a few social media users who sent her rape threats. When the first song from My Story was released online in January 2018, the trolls launched a ‘negative rating’ campaign against the video, and flooded the YouTube comment section with angry remarks.
It must be mentioned that Parvathy is among the three actresses who have written to AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes) seeking an emergency executive meeting following the decision to reinstate actor Dileep, an accused in the assault on an actress last year.
Roshni also slammed Parvathy and Prithviraj for not supporting her during the time of distress. “They should have been here with me now, offering solidarity. They didn’t do anything to promote the movie. Parvathy left for the United States, and Prithvi is now busy with Lucifer (his directorial debut),” she said. “When I called them to discuss these issues, both of them were unavailable,” she said.
Later, speaking to The New Indian Express, Roshni clarified that while she was upset over the actors’ absence from the film’s promo events, she had nothing against Prithviraj and Parvathy.
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“I am not a part of WCC. Whatever opinion they had was their own. Why crucify my movie for something I am not even connected to?” she asked, adding that WCC refused to help her even though she approached them.
Meanwhile, actor Maala Parvathy, who is Parvathy’s co-star in Koode, said in a Facebook post that it was wrong to blame Parvathy for the failure of My Story. “I noticed that My Story‘s director is holding Parvathy responsible for the failure of her film… If that film managed to have any decent run, it’s because of Parvathy’s performance in the film,” she said.
Koode, directed by Anjali Menon and starring Parvathy, Prithviraj and Nazriya in the lead roles, is releasing on July 14.