Avinash Mukherjee on Kaali controversy: If a Hindu God or any God is portrayed in a way that hurts the sentiments of people, it should be avoided

The poster of filmmaker Leena Manimekalai’s documentary, Kaali, has drawn flak from netizens for hurting religious sentiments. Many took to social media to express their discontent around the depiction of Goddess Kali, while others have extended their support towards the Canada-based Madurai-born Indian director. Balika Vadhu actor Avinash Mukherjee shares his take on the poster.

“I think if a Hindu God or any God is portrayed in such a way that it hurts the sentiments of people or if it’s a case of any public figure, it should be avoided. It is really silly to try to portray a God in a bad image that is not acceptable. It is no way coherent in expressing progressive ideas and disrupts the idea of creative liberty that we have seen in Indian cinema,” says the actor, who has earned fame with his portrayal of Ranbir Khanna in Itna Karo Na Mujhe Pyaar and Soham Singh in Shakti.

He adds that have always taken care of the sentiments and God and has been particular about how certain things are being portrayed. The image of God and the mother has always been at the highest pedestal in all our Hindi films, and Avinash completely supports it.

“If you see the films from the 50s to the 70s, these are at the highest pedestal and they were superhits. Now the movies that we are making, we have lost the plot a little bit as we are trying to get more westernized and trying to create beautiful shots and add VFX and create a buzz rather than focusing on the story and script. The golden era needs to come back. There are more ways to create good cinema than to do something just for a buzz. Yes, buzz can give you a good opening, but a good script can give you a cult film and get you a special place in the heart of the audience,” he ends.