SRK and Deepika Padukone in a nonetheless from Pathaan. (courtesy: YRF)
New Delhi:
Filmmaker Siddharth Anand says the controversy over Besharam Rang song of Pathaan was just white noise as the team knew that there was nothing objectionable in the Shah Rukh Khan’s movie. The stylish spy thriller had faced boycott calls over the track prior to its release on January 25, with right-wing groups objecting to Deepika Padukone’s orange bikini. Some politicians had also slammed the song for hurting religious sentiments.
“We had been neither scared nor pumped up. That was all simply white noise. We knew that there was nothing objectionable in our film. We had been in Spain and I picked that costume simply randomly. But I by no means imagined all this might occur.
“The colour of the outfit looked nice as it was a sunny day, the grass was green and water was blue. That was the logic behind it,” Anand mentioned on the News 18 Rising India Summit 2023 on Thursday night.
The filmmaker mentioned he’s glad that the viewers noticed by way of the brouhaha and made the movie a humongous success. “When this happened, we thought that audiences will understand when they watch the movie that our intent was not wrong and what they are seeing on screen is not objectionable. But I can’t blame the audience because they hadn’t seen the movie till then.
“I feel it is vitally commendable for the viewers to go to theatres in large numbers and e-book their tickets upfront. They proved the boycott motion incorrect.” Also starring John Abraham, Pathaan collected over Rs 1,000 crore at the global box office. The film is currently streaming on Prime Video.
The director, known for hits such as Bachna Ae Haseeno, Bang Bang! and War, said those behind the boycott calls fail to understand that there are many whose livelihoods are affected by such controversies.
“When they are saying boycott, they need you to boycott a film or a star however they do not have a look at all of the individuals whose livelihoods are depending on the movie. At least 300 individuals labored on my movie’s set daily. After the movie has wrapped capturing, there are such a lot of VFX artists who work on it.
“When a movie is running in cinema halls, there are people who work in theatres. So there is a huge industry that works around the film industry and it benefits when a movie does well,” he mentioned. The director is at present engaged on Fighter, which reunites him together with his War star Hrithik Roshan and Padukone.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)