Filmmaker Leena Manimekalai, who has faced numerous complaints, trolling, FIRs in India over the featuring the poster of Maa Kaali smoking and carring LGBTQ flag in her new documentary film. On Thursday, Leena again posted on Twitter a picture of two theater actors dressed as Shiv-Parvati and smoking. This image has caused outrage among social media users who have not denied that the image is still relevant to the cast of his controversial films. “This is not from my film. This comes from rural India every day where these sangh parivars seek to eradicate them with their endless hatred and religious prejudice. Hindutva will never be India,” Leena Manimekalai wrote on Twitter after the post his has created a new controversy.
A poster of his documentary depicting a woman dressed as the goddess Kaali and smoking caused a great deal of outrage. Complaints against the director have been filed in a number of states in India. Twitter in India has unveiled his first tweet releasing a movie poster.
“Kaali will not be killed. Kaali will not be raped. Kaali will not be destroyed. She is the goddess of death,” Leena Manimekalai said in response to Twitter’s action.
The director then posted a photo of other artists dressed as Shiv-Parvati smokers and posted captions saying ‘somewhere’. The picture was misinterpreted and the director was attacked again.
Speaking to The Guardian, Leena Manimekalai said, “It seems that the whole nation – now degenerating from democracy to the big machine of hatred – wants to criticize me.”
“In the village of Tamil Nadu, my hometown, Kaali is believed to be the pagan goddess. “He eats meat cooked in goat’s blood, drinks arrack, smokes beed and dances in a weird way … that is the Kaali I played in the film,” he said.
Misinterpreting the Hindu culture, heritage, religion and deities is truly a blameworthy. Criticizing our own culture and deities based upon minimal knowledge or tempered facts signifies complete dumbness of a person. These type of occurring are apparently an example of degraded thinking and signifies equivalent to defaming the faith and beliefs of the Hindu inhabitants.