Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming magnum opus, “Gangubai Kathiawadi” has been a center of attraction for the past several months, and with its release approaching soon, the movie is making more headlines.
Recently, when a track from the film Dholida got released, fans couldn’t help but send appreciation and praises on Alia’s way for her brilliant performance and expressed how they’re eagerly waiting for the masterpiece of the film to drop. However, other than all the appreciation, the movie has also managed to garner a lot of controversies since the movie was in the making, it’s a Bhansali film after all!
When the movie was still in the making, Gangubai Harjivandas-on whom the movie is apparently based, her adopted son Babu Raoji Shah, slapped the makers with a defamation case. His claims were so, that the movie portrayed Gangubai’s character not as a social worker that she was, but instead, more as a prostitute. Which in turn, according to her son and her family, is sabotaging her image. While the hearing of the case was still pending in the High Court, the makers had to then put a temporary halt to the shooting of the film. Several reports claim how the director Bhansali was almost paying a whooping 3 lacs per day to save the sets from being demolished.
However, the shooting resumed and the movie now has an official release date too. But the controversies just don’t seem to end! In the official trailer, there is a scene where Gangubai is sitting on a dentist’s chair. The dentist examining her then asks her to open her mouth wider, she replies by saying, “Pura China muh me ghusayega kya?” This scene has particularly hurt the sentiments of the people from the northeast, who face discrimination. While others complained about how Vijay Raj, a CIS man is portraying a role of a trans woman in the film. Netizens believed that it was indeed high time that Bollywood actually started to cast Trans women for such roles, giving them the opportunity too.
Even with such criticism, many are waiting with bated breath for the release of the movie to witness Alia Bhatt’s stellar performance. The movie is slated to be released on the 25th of February.
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