During a recent interaction with a few online movie trackers, Kaththi Sandai director Suraaj had said that heroines were getting paid hefty sums for mere skin show. He was quoted saying, “Heroines should make ‘the audience happy’ by wearing extra-glamorous costumes.
The audience pay money only to see them in ‘such clothes’. We are a low-class audience. They are paying money to watch heroines in a glamorous role.” Moreover, he said he insisted on the costume designers to shorten the length of any costume that covers heroines’ knees.
These comments irked a lot of people online. The heroine of the movie Tamannaah chose to express her hurt and disappointment on Twitter.
She wrote, “This is 2016 and it is very ironic that I had to leave a film like Dangal in the middle which is on woman empowerment and to tackle this issue.
I am very hurt and angered by the comments made by my director Suraaj and I would definitely want him to apologise, not only to me, but to all women in the industry.”
She added, “We are actors, we are here to act and entertain the audience and should not at any point be objectified as commodities.
I have been working in the South industry for over 11 years and have worn costumes which I have been comfortable with. It is sad that women in our country are spoken about so frivolously and I would like to tell my audiences that our industry should not be generalised by comments made by one such individual.”
Interestingly, Nayanthara also reacted to the issue, and had said, “How can a responsible person from the film industry make such a crass comment. Does he think that heroines are strippers who’ll do anything for the sake of money?”
Meanwhile, Suraaj had said, it was a 'fun comment’, and expressed his apologies. “If my statement had offended anyone. I feel sad about it, and I am sorry,” he told.