Little less than a year back, Shahid Kapoor starrer ‘Kabir Singh’ had released and began a nationwide discourse on toxic masculinity. While ‘artistic freedom’ and ‘art for art’s sake’ were arguments put forward in defence of the movie, a significant number of people pointed out how glorifying destructive behavior through films only fed the scope for the audience to do the same in real-life.
However, even the most harmless details like the name or occupation of a character are enough to “inspire” wrong-doing. Because human beings are capable of unimaginable things, virtues and vices alike!
Speaking of ‘Kabir Singh’ inspiring harmful behavior, a 31-year-old man in Delhi was allegedly inspired by Kabir Singh, posed to be an orthopaedic surgeon by profession, and conned women on dating apps, reports NDTV.
How so? Because Kabir Singh’s character apparently made orthopaedic surgeons look extremely sexy!
The accused, Anand Kumar, created a fake profile on dating apps with the name Dr Rohit Gujral and approached women. After speaking to them for some time, he pretended to fall in love with them and promised them his hand in marriage. He also asked the women for private pictures and videos, which later on became tools for him to blackmail those women and extort money from them.
He also lied that his mother was undergoing treatment. Some women thought that he was in a ‘difficult situation’ and gave him money. Others were blackmailed. He extorted Rs 30,000 from one and another applied for a loan of Rs 5 lakhs for him.
The police were able to track him and arrest him from Lajpat Nagar. They revealed that the whole idea of identifying himself as a doctor came after he watched ‘Kabir Singh’.
Seems like ‘Kabir Singh’ has caused damage in more ways than one!