- Monday, May 05, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
SHE has faced a massive backlash over the poster of her film ‘Kaali’ which showed the goddess smoking a cigarette and wielding an LGBTQ flag but that has not stopped Leena Manimekalai from expressing her mind once again.
Hitting back at her distractors, the Tamil Nadu-born filmmaker has now said that “Hindutva can never become India”.
ALSO READ: Kaali row: Indian National Congress MP Shashi Tharoor defends self after facing own party wrath
On Thursday (7), the filmmaker who is currently studying in Toronto, Canada, tweeted a picture of two persons smoking while dressed in the costumes of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. The duo bear striking similarities to the controversial image of the poster of ‘Kaali’ that Manimekalai has tweeted earlier. The post sparked a massive controversy as India’s majoritarian Hindus took offence and police complaints were filed against the filmmaker. Political parties also joined the fray.
Twitter also took down the post about the poster that Manimekalai had made on July 2. The microblogging site did it in response to a legal demand, which the filmmaker called hilarious. She is facing first-information reports filed against her in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in India for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.
Tweeting her latest picture of ‘gods smoking’, Manimekalai defended her previous post saying she had highlighted something which is seen in everyday rural India.
“BJP payrolled troll army have no idea about how folk theatre artists chill post their performances.This is not from my film. This is from everyday rural India that these sangh parivars want to destroy with their relentless hate & religious bigotry. Hindutva can never become India,” she said.
BJP payrolled troll army have no idea about how folk theatre artists chill post their performances.This is not from my film.This is from everyday rural India that these sangh parivars want to destroy with their relentless hate & religious bigotry. Hindutva can never become India. https://t.co/ZsYkDbfJhK
— Leena Manimekalai (@LeenaManimekali) July 7, 2022
In another tweet, she said, “These trolls are after my artistic freedom. If I give away my freedom fearing this mindless rightwing mob mafia, I will give away everyone’s freedom. So I will keep it, come what may.”
“These trolls are after my artistic freedom. If I give away my freedom fearing this mindless rightwing mob mafia, I will give away everyone’s freedom. So I will keep it, come what may.” https://t.co/nD2TNxypOk
— Leena Manimekalai (@LeenaManimekali) July 7, 2022
Though Manimekalai said her document was about a woman strolling in the streets of Toronto, several right-wing groups protested against it and lodged complaints which eventually saw Canada’s Agha Khan Museum remove a presentation of the documentary.
Mahua Moitra, a western-educated parliamentarian in India, also faced flak for saying that Goddess Kaali is a “meat-eating and alcohol-accepting” deity. Police reports were filed against her as well and her own party condemned her remarks and distanced itself from her.
