Badrinath Ki Dulhania director justifies Varun Dhawan’s molestation scene

Shashank Khaitan’s Badrinath Ki Dulhania has impressed the cine goers and the film is well on its way to reach the sought-after Rs100 crore mark. But the Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt-starrer has faced criticism for a scene where Badri gets molested by a group of men in Singapore. 

Khaitan has justified the scene and explained the thought process behind it. Talking to a daily, he said that there was deep meaning to the incident, “The intent was to show Badri’s character at an all-time low. Emotionally he was down and out. Vaidehi (Bhatt) had stripped him of his ‘mardangi’ when she asked him to call his father and he couldn’t. He was emotionally defenceless and was unable to even protect his physical ‘izzat’.”

There were also objections against the scene for creating humour out of the incident. Khaitan pointed that his intent was to trivialise the matter. “The humour was to comfort and not trivialise the issue,” he added. 

The filmmaker pointed out that the famous ‘balatkar’ scene in Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots could also have offended some. “One of the most legendary scenes in recent times is Raju Hirani’s 3 Idiots scene. If taken in the wrong spirit, even that can seem offensive,” he said. 

Produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, Badrinath Ki Dulhania has so far earned Rs88.77 crore at the box office in India.