Arjun Reddy: Women organisations protest against Vijay Deverakonda-starrer; demand ban

Vijay Deverakonda’s Telugu romantic-drama Arjun Reddy received good reviews from critics and audiences, and has been performing well at the box office. However, not everyone is impressed by the content of the film; protests were staged in Vijayawada by representatives of AP Mahila Samakhya (APMS) and the AP Mahila Congress, as well as other women’s organisations. The Hindu reports that these protesters want the film to be banned because they claim it will mislead the youth, and that it goes against Telugu culture. [caption id=“attachment_3972723” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A still from Arjun Reddy. Image via Facebook[/caption] “The movie encourages drugs and such films will only cause harm to society,” said AP Mahila Congress president Padmasri Sunkara. Among the protesters concerns is also the portrayal of ‘dating culture’ in the film, which they opine will have a negative impact on college-going students. Reports state that the representatives of these organisations felt that the film’s makers “degraded women and portrayed them in a obscene way”. As a part of Arjun Reddy’s promotions, the makers released posters depicting Vijay kissing the female protagonist. The film tells the story of a student of medicine and his life after a breakup. The film’s main lead spoke about these scenes in the run-up to the release. “We have included the lip-lock scene because the story demanded it,” Vijay told IANS in August, speaking about how he felt it was necessary with respect to Arjun Reddy’s narrative. He further added that he could not understand why a kiss was being termed as vulgar. “When people watch the film, they would understand the purpose behind the scene. He kisses her out of love and passion. I don’t understand what’s vulgar about kissing when in a relationship. It’s not like we have shot the lip-lock sequence in poor taste,” he said. Speaking to Firstpost, he said that he did not expect such backlash. He also spoke about how he was drawn to the protagonist and could relate to him, especially when it came to his outbursts of anger.

With inputs from IANS