Cinema has the power to influence people’s thoughts and actions. While there are people who think that to place a moral responsibility on film-makers is unfair, that art could just be created for art sake, we cannot negate the fact that when film-makers have the ability to shape mindsets, they should, at least a tad bit, think about how their movies affect the masses.
This is probably why Ram Gopal Varma has been facing flak from people online who accused him of wrongly interpreting lesbians.
Ram Gopal Varma recently took to Twitter to reveal his next film – “India’s first lesbian crime/action film” he called it. Describing the film, he wrote:
“DANGEROUS is about 2 women who because of bad experiences with men, passionately fall in love with each other.”
Have a look:
DANGEROUS is about 2 women who because of bad experiences with men, passionately fall in love with each other and their intense affair throws them into the midst of DANGEROUS criminals and even more DANGEROUS cops which leads to a DANGEROUS climax #DangerousGirls #SparkSagar1 pic.twitter.com/Q6pphr7dsD
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) May 12, 2021
People online slammed him for wrongly interpreting homosexuality and reducing the “existence” of lesbians to “bad experiences with men”. They pointed out that “bad experiences” with any gender does not change a person’s sexuality. Have a look:
What the hell, you just reduced the existence of lesbians, bi, and pan women to “bad experiences with men”. What is wrong with you!
— Ghazal Khanna (@syahiunboxed) May 12, 2021
Bad experience with ‘men’ makes ‘women’ ‘homosexuals’ then it would have been impossible to find ‘heterosexual’ woman in world. Movie must be totally fictional/fantasy. Please mention that in the disclaimer. Or else it will be ‘dangerous’ for viewers.
— ಕ್ರುಶಿಕ ಎವಿ/Krushika AV (@KrishKrushik) May 12, 2021
wow didn’t know all it takes to be a lesbian is to have bad experiences with cis men. I have been doing it wrong all these years then
— dipu’s everyday one-sided love affair on the metro (@GrinchUnlimited) May 12, 2021
Bad experiences with any gender doesn’t change a person’s sexuality🤦. If this was the case then every women would have been a lesbian.
— Poonam Sharma (@PoonamSharma__) May 12, 2021
homosexuality is not your aesthetic to create porn. stop with the wrong representation of lgbtq+ community to make money , educate yourself. https://t.co/2R4aTSwAV0
— 🦕- dm for covid resources #FreePalestine (@mrssoftmalhotra) May 13, 2021
Sexuality doesn't work like that wtf is this https://t.co/rWxvs1wvfg
— ज्येष्ठा 🌿 (@DushtKanya) May 12, 2021
Congratulations, you just reduced the existence of lesbians, bi, and pan women to "bad experiences with men". https://t.co/ldAw59jK2e
— Ghazal Khanna (@syahiunboxed) May 12, 2021
https://t.co/w2U46PoIpx pic.twitter.com/EkSWKFlyu2
— Disgruntled Pelican 🏳️🌈 (@ThisisLLN) May 12, 2021
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Cover picture source: left.