After Vivek Agnihotri’s reaction to Pathaan song Besharam Rang, Twitter reminds him of his ‘erotic thriller’ Hate Story

Vivek Agnihotri shared a video on Twitter recently, where a young girl criticised the makers of Pathaan for spreading ‘vulgarity’ through the song Besharam Rang featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone.

Now, a section of Twitter users has criticised the filmmaker, called him a ‘hypocrite’ and reminded him his own ‘erotic thriller’ Hate Story (2012). Many also reacted to an old interview clip of Vivek from some years ago, where the filmmaker spoke about ‘celebrating a woman’s body’ and called ‘erotica an art form’.

On Thursday, sharing a video criticising the song Besharam Rang on Twitter, Vivek Agnihotri had written, “WARNING… video against Bollywood. Don’t watch it if you are a ‘secular’.” Reacting to his tweet, a person wrote, “Look who’s talking of vulgarity. The director of Hate Story. Hypocrisy of the highest level.” Another person tweeted, “The one who made Hate Story is talking about nudity. The one who got thrown out of Bollywood is speaking about the idea of Bollywood…”

In the old video that many are sharing on social media, Vivek Agnihotri had said, “You’re not a complete artist if you haven’t done erotic art. It’s an art form. What can be better than celebrating a woman’s body. What’s wrong with it? I think the celebration of a woman’s body or human body… I think the most beautiful thing in this world, for a filmmaker or a photographer, is to shoot two naked bodies together… Because you are taught differently, your parents and school taught you differently doesn’t mean that I also have to look at it like that.”

Sharing the video, a Twitter user called Vivek ‘dogla (double-faced)’. Another person tweeted, “Vivek Agnihotri, the director of Hate Story sharing a video on vulgarity of Bollywood…” A person also tweeted, “So once you are done making a movie like Hate Story and making money off it… then you can go off and pass judgement on others for a song, which you consider ‘ashleel (vulgar)’ now. But when you made an entire movie with much more, then it was art. Gotcha. You hypocrite”. Reacting to a tweet about the his old interview, Vivek said, “…I come from an ever-changing, ever evolving, progressive faith so once I realised what was wrong with Bollywood, I changed…”

In the same interview, Vivek had said about Hate Story, “For the first time, we are saying that we are making a film which belongs to the genre of erotic thriller. It is just a movie like any other movie. It can entertain you, it may not entertain you, but we made it with the intention to entertain people…” Vivek had directed Hate Story, which was released in 2012. The film had garnered attention for its explicit scenes.

Meanwhile, a section of Twitter users is also sharing photos of the filmmaker’s daughter wearing an orange swimsuit in her social media post after he reshared a video criticising Besharam Rang. The Pathaan song, which features Deepika in an orange swimsuit, was criticised by a section of people, and also led to Pathaan facing boycott calls.

Vivek, who has directed one of the highest-grossing films of 2022, The Kashmir Files, is working on his next, The Vaccine War. Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika’s Pathaan will be released in theatres on January 25, 2023. It also stars John Abraham.

Pathaan has been making news and facing boycott calls after the release of its song Besharam Rang featuring Deepika and Shah Rukh on December 12. On Thursday, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) directed the makers to implement ‘changes’ in the film, including its songs, before the film was released.