Riya Sengupta, Head of Programming at Sun TV Bangla, says that the Kaali poster outrage could have been avoided. Recently, the poster of the film Kaali sparked outrage as people claimed it disrespected sentiments. In the poster, a girl dressed as Kaali is smoking.
Religious sentiments are important and need to be respected but at every instance these days, there are outpourings of outrage. The same happened during Padmavat. As if the fear of hurting religious sentiments is censoring freedom of expression and interpretation,” says Riya, the creative director of shows like Balika Vadhu, Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi, Woh Apna Sa, Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya, Sadda Haq, Nima.
However, she adds that religious sentiments should be taken care of. “There are few decisions that should be left for the audience to answer. Apart from that, we have a censor board that has a free hand to take their decision. We are just seeing that picture and we don’t know what is behind it. So what is the context and the reason behind it without knowing that or getting into that, the idea of not hurting any religion is something that we should respect and abide by. Apart from that there should be some liberty for the audience to take their decision.”