Homi Adajania, who made his directorial debut Being Cyrus and also the commercially-successful Cocktail and recently, Finding Fanny has voiced his support for Deepika Padukone in her fight against The Times of India. Regarding comments made about her cleavage last month on social media.
TOI had posted a link on Twitter captioned “OMG! Deepika Padukone’s cleavage show.” That featured a shot of the actress from above.
As the post got noticed and generated a heated discussion about media ethics, stars in Bollywood gathered to lend their support to the 28 year-old actress, who fought back with a fiery tweet on the same social platform.
Adajania in his speech at the Busan International Film Festival on Sunday said, “At some level you have to realize that your ‘star’ is a human being and needs to be given that respect.” Adding that he found such coverage ruthless, he said, “If a person like Deepika didn’t draw the line now, where will it go?”
Referring to the trend of lurid headlines in social media by the country’s increasingly competitive market, Adajania said that this was something that needed to be tackled.
According to Adajania, Deepika was totally right when she decided to stand up to TOI, though he wishes there was less mud-slinging, which he says dilutes the issue. All in all, the director just wished this wasn’t an issue that needed to be discussed and hoped a day would come when that was the case.
The director has brought his film, Finding Fanny to Busan, South Korea and the 42-year-old says the film caters to an evolving Indian audience both abroad and in India. Referring to the changing nature of his audience, he says his film may not have been applicable 10 years ago as it was in English and followed a non-Bollywood tradition, but is convinced about its relevance today.