Hindutva can never become India: Leena on 'Kaali' row

CHENNAI: Filmmaker Leena Manimekalai, who has been facing severe backlash over a poster of her documentary "Kaali, tweeted on Thursday that Hindutva can never become India.

The filmmaker is facing several FIRs following outrage over the poster of Kaali showing the goddess smoking and holding an LGBTQ flag.

"BJP payrolled troll army have no idea about how folk theatre artists chill post their performances.This is not from my film.This is from everyday rural India that these sangh parivars want to destroy with their relentless hate & religious bigotry. Hindutva can never become India," she tweeted along with a picture of two persons smoking while dressed like Lord Shiva and Parvati.

“These trolls are after my artistic freedom. If I give away my freedom fearing this mindless rightwing mob mafia, I will give away everyone’s freedom. So I will keep it, come what may," she continued to write.

Two separate FIRs have been registered against Manimekalai in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. On Wednesday, two additional cases were filed against her in Bhopal and Ratlam.As controversy swirled over the poster of the film, yet to be seen by most people, the embattled filmmaker termed Twitter's decision to pull down her tweet hilarious and asked whether the social media platform would also withhold posts by "hate mongers".

While Twitter pulled down Manimekalai's tweet on the matter in response to "a legal demand", the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto that was supposed to show Kaali at an event expressed regret and removed the documentary from its list of films being presented.