Actress Nayanthara lashed out at director Suraj for his sexist remark about heroines in a recent interview.
The director, in an recent video interview, said that heroines are paid in crores to appear onscreen in provocative clothing. The director further added, “If the costume designer comes to me with the heroine’s clothes covering up to the knee, I would strictly order them to shorten the length. I don’t mind even if my heroine is not happy or comfortable, but I insist and get it done. This is because audiences pay money to see the heroines in such clothes.”
The statement has not gone down well with Nayanthara. She said in an interview to Sify.com, “How can a responsible person from film industry make such a crass and cheap comment? Who is Suraj to say such a derogatory statement against heroines? Does he think that heroines are strippers who will come and shed their clothes just because they are paid money? Will he dare to speak such things about working women in his family?”
The 32-year-old actress added, “A heroine wears skimpy clothes in commercial cinema only if she is comfortable and the script requires it. And which audience is he speaking about who pay money to see heroine in bad light? Our audiences who look up to film stars are far more mature and respects women more than Suraj does. And by making such comments that heroines take money to shed clothes, he is misleading the youngsters who will think this is what happens in cinema. I too have done my share of glamour in commercial films not because my director wanted to please that particular ‘low class’ of audience, but because it was my CHOICE. No one has the right to think that heroines can be taken for granted.”
Kaththi Sandai‘s heroine Tamannaah Bhatia too criticised the director for his sexist remark. She wrote, “It is sad that women in our country are spoken about so frivolously and I would like to tell my audiences that our industry should not be generalised due to comments about one such individual.”
— Tamannaah Bhatia (@tamannaahspeaks) December 26, 2016
In response to the criticism, the interviewers released a statement dissociating themselves from the content of the interview. “We don’t endorse (Suraj’s) comments”, they said, adding that they found his interview “amusing” and were only laughing at his “inadvertent candidness.” The interview has been pulled from Youtube.
