Twitter users slammed the new trailer of Bollywood film Pati Patni aur Woh for a dialogue that jokes about marital rape. The line delivered by Kartik Aaryan, the lead of the movie, jokes about how unfair it is that men are termed "rapists" when they manage to trick or convince their wives to give in to their demands and have sex with them.
"Biwi se sex maang lein toh hum bikhaari. Biwi ko sex na de toh hum atyachaari. Aur kisi tarah jugaad laga ke usse sex haasil kar lena toh balaatkari bhi hum hai," says Aaryan’s Chintu Tyagi in the two and a half minute trailer of the film.
Twitter users wasted no time in lambasting the movie, the actor and the filmmaker for joking about marital rape especially in the age after #MeToo scandals have rocked various industries across the world, including the Indian film industry.
Directed by Mudassar Aziz and co-produced by T-Series and B R Studios, Pati Patni aur Woh is a remake of the 1978 movie of the same name. It tells the story of Abhinav Tyagi (Kartik Aaryan), also known as Chintu, who marries Vedika Tripathi (Bhumi Pednekar) and lives happily ever after – but only until he meets a new colleague, Tapasya (Ananya Pandey). He tells Tapasya that his wife is having an affair – this being the spin given on the original Sanjeev Kumar, Vidya Sinha and Ranjeeta Kaur starrer, where the husband tell his secretary that his wife is terminally ill.
Actress Bhumi Pednekar recently defended the film, telling IANS “The story is very empowering to both genders. I think that the makers made sure that this does not turn into a sexist, baseless film. I do not think anyone who is part of this film, including us actors, belong to that school. We were extremely conscious of the fact that we do not end up making it into a sexist comment… This is a subject that could have gone wrong easily. But they (the makers) have been sensitive and careful.”
However, after seeing the trailer, Twitter users are not buying this and are calling the film out for its insenstivie, crass and humourless joke about rape, especially marital rape in the post #MeToo era and that too in a country where crimes against women are a major cause of concern.