“Nanban”, a remake of Bollywood’s blockbuster film “3 idiots” was released in the year 2012. With Vijay replacing Amir Khan, Jiiva and Sri kanth replaced Sharman Joshi and Ranganathan Madhavan respectively. The film was directed by Shankar and did well in the box office. Now, nearly after 9 long years, an answer provided by actor Jiiva and Sathyan to a fan girl during one of the promotional interviews for the film, has created a controversy as a twitter user uploaded the particular video clip and wondered why no one has called out the insensitive jokes made by the actors.
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In the program which was hosted by “Neeya Naana” fame Gopinath, we could see Director Shankar, Actors Vijay, Srikanth, Jiiva, Sathyan, SJ Surya participating in it to interact with the fans, most probably prior the film’s release. A girl who wanted to question actor Jiiva, asked which project would he choose if he was offered between a film in which he has to play a protagonist opposite to 8 heroines and a film in which he has to play an antagonist.
When Jiiva answered that he would choose the film in which he has to do the role of an antagonist, the audience could be heard “booing” at him. Comedy actor Sathish who was sitting next to Jiiva, would pass a comment saying “You can perform rape scenes while playing villain” and Jiiva would endorse his comment by saying it louder to the audience. “If one plays Villain role, he could get the opportunity of performing many rape scenes” Jiiva says amidst the loud cheer of the crowd.
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Sharing the video clip in her twitter timeline, a twitter user named Apoorva wrote “It makes me sick to my stomach to hear an actor ( who I thought was a decent man) say he would like to act as a villain because he can rape a lot of women. What’s worse is the his co-actors and the audience cheering him on! I cannot believe no one has called this out yet.” in her tweet.
Here’s her tweet :
It makes me sick to my stomach to hear an actor ( who I thought was a decent man) say he would like to act as a villain because he can rape a lot of women. What’s worse is the his co-actors and the audience cheering him on! I cannot believe no one has called this out yet. pic.twitter.com/hUAXm0DLGT
— Apoorva (@Apoorva1701) May 25, 2021
The tweet garnered several kind of reactions with people defending Jiiva saying that he is just going along with the nature of the show and few said that it was a 9 year old mentality. Many got offended and fumed at the actor for uttering such an answer. Singer cum MeToo activist Chinmayi also reacted to the tweet.
Check out some of the reactions below :
Ofcourse you’re another one of the keyboard warriors promoting rape culture by trivialising it. NOTHING ABOUT A RAPE JOKE IS OK. LEARN THAT FIRST. TAKE A HIKE.
— Apoorva (@Apoorva1701) May 25, 2021
Dude I can show you 1000 videos like this..this was the mentality 10 years back..I agree it is totally wrong..he should apologise..many ppl would seen this telecast jovially..nobody called it out back then..It was a collective mentality back then.
— Reena (@Reena42902938) May 25, 2021
Y no one is blaming that girl for that qn?? 8 heroine nuu kekkuradhey andha meaning laa dhane🤷
— Som🕊️☮️ (@SomNsk02) May 25, 2021
If a movie depicts a rape scene its just an act of two people within their mutual consent. In that way @JiivaOfficial expressed a funny response saying to be lucky to get a villain role. Anyway in the movie the villain would be held punishable for that crime as it is meant to be!
— Surendran Nataraj (@surendran66555) May 25, 2021
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@JiivaOfficial என்ன கருமத்தை பேசி வச்சு இருக்க?
— Uvaraj (@Uvaraj29356583) May 25, 2021
“Rape jokes were common. A channel telecasting this was common. Everyone laughing along was also common. If women didn’t laugh along we were told that we were incapable of taking a joke & that was common. This was normalised. However I do believe this attitude has changed now.” Chinmayi said as her reponse.
Rape jokes were common.
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) May 25, 2021
A channel telecasting this was common.
Everyone laughing along was also common.
If women didn’t laugh along we were told that we were incapable of taking a joke & that was common.
This was normalised.
However I do believe this attitude has changed now. https://t.co/NDz7uipUg8
