Kaali poster row: Twitter recently pulled down Kaali director Leena Manimekalai's tweet. The Toronto-based director, who is in the eye of the proverbial storm over the poster of her film Kaali showing the goddess smoking and holding an LGBTQ flag, is also facing separate FIRs in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
As controversy swirled over the poster of the film, yet to be seen by most people, the embattled filmmaker termed Twitter's decision to pull down her tweet hilarious and asked whether the social media platform would also withhold posts by "hate mongers".
Amid row over the Kaali poster, Leena's old tweets on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lord Ram have surfaced on social media and are going viral.
READ: Amid Kaali poster row, Leena Manimekalai drops photo showing actors dressed as Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvati smoking
In a 2013 tweet, apparently, filmmaker Leena Manimekalai had stated that she would give up her citizenship if "Modi becomes this country's PM" in her lifetime. The tweet reads, "I will surrender my passports, rationcard, pancard and my citizenship if ever Modi becomes this country's PM in my lifetime. I swear!'
A 2020 tweet by the filmmkaer that is currently going viral on the internet reads, "Ram is not God. He is just a BJP invented the Electronic voting machine."
Check out the tweets below:
For the unversed, after the Kaali poster row erupted, the Indian High Commission in Ottawa urged the Canadian authorities to take down all "provocative material" related to the film after it received complaints from leaders of the Hindu community in Canada about the "disrespectful depiction" of Hindu gods. In response to the request, the Canada-based Aga Khan Museum said in a statekment it "deeply regrets" causing offence to members of the Hindu and other faith communities and removed the presentation of the documentary Kaali. Kaali was suppose to be showcased as part of the 'Under the Tent' project at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto.
Under attack for the poster, Manimekalai had on Monday said she will continue to use her voice fearlessly till she is alive. "I have nothing to lose. Till the time I live, I wish to live with a voice that speaks what I believe without fear. If the price for that is my life, it can be given," she wrote in a tweet in Tamil in response to an article on the controversy.
The filmmaker also urged people to watch the documentary to understand the context behind the poster.
