Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor's 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. Now, when Varun was awarded Best Actor for the Nitesh Tiwari film at an event on Friday, netizens had a field day cracking jokes about the same.
When a photo of Varun receiving the award was shared on the Reddit subgroup BollyBlindsNGossip, a netizen wrote, "He has the audacity to go and accept it. I am never gonna watch a movie of his again after he doubled down defending this crap of a movie", while another added, "So everything is a joke these days!!".
The few scenes in Bawaal that were 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. Referencing the latter dialogue, one user on Reddit even wrote, "Every award goes through its Auschwitz".
Defending Varun, one netizen stated, "Just because some people find a few dialogue’s offensive doesn’t take away from the fact that Varun potrayed toxic image concisousness husband well!". Varun played Janhvi's 'toxic' husband in the film, which skipped its theatrical release and had a direct OTT premiere on Prime Video in July.
THIS IS A JOKE
by u/thekeeperofwords in BollyBlindsNGossip
Reacting to the backlash that Bawaal had faced, Varun had told Pinkvilla, "Some people got trigged or sensitive about this. But I don't understand where does that sensitivity or trigger go when they watch, suppose an English film, I'm saying for example. They're allowed to do everything there, they're allowed to take leaps and they're allowed to show things in a certain way, but you'll find that correct."
READ | Did Sara Ali Khan take a sly dig at Janhvi Kapoor by asking people to read more books on Auschwitz? Reddit thinks so
