Starring Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor in the leading roles, the romantic drama Bawaal was dubbed 'insensitive' and 'tone-deaf' for its references to Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jews during the World War II. The film, directed by Nitesh Tiwari of Dangal and Chhichhore fame, was also called out by the Israeli embassy in India.
In a recent interview, Janhvi Kapoor has defended the film and said that "the heart of the film was in the right place." Speaking to Galatta Plus, the actress stated, "It is all a matter of perspective. I feel sad that what some people got from it was that we were trivialising it. That was not the intention. I would like to understand where that opinion is coming from."
"I was part of a lot of the initial discussions with the makers about what the intention was, what the thought was. I had a lot of clarity on what we were trying to say and where that was coming from, and I believe that it’s a very pure thought of just trying to move people by what had happened and try to hopefully motivate them to understand that our problems are nowhere near anything compared to what had happened, and hopefully get them to see things in a new way", the Dhadak actress added.
The few scenes in Bawaal that have been called out include a sequence where Varun and Janhvi’s characters picture themselves as inmates of the Auschwitz concentraton camp and visualise themselves being suffocated in the gas chambers. There are lines of dialogue like "We are all a little like Hitler", and "Every relationship has its Auschwitz", that have also been criticised.
READ | Bawaal movie review: Nitesh Tiwari baffles with insensitive Holocaust, Hitler references in tone-deaf relationship drama
