Pati Patni Aur Woh director Mudassar Aziz Loses his Calm over the Outrage on Marital Rape Joke, says ‘I Laughed at the Reactions’

Ever since the trailer of Ananya Panday, Bhumi Pednekar and Kartik Aryan starrer Pati Patni Aur Woh released, the film faced the wrath of netizens on social media for a particular dialogue by Kartik’s character in the film, that allegedly mocks marital rape.

Kartik’s monologue in the film irked many, who had taken the Internet by storm and slammed the makers for joking around the sensitive topic of marital rape. And as a result of the massive backlash, the makers put out an official statement announcing that the particular dialogue will be edited out of the film.

Earlier, the film’s actress Bhumi Pednekar had defended the film saying that it is not sexist. He had even apologized stating that they did not want to hurt the sentiments of the people. And recently, the leading man, Kartik, too reacted to the controversy and stated that they have now rectified the dialogue after they realized it hurt the sentiments of the people.

Now, the film’s director Mudassar Aziz has reacted to the negative reactions the film and the makers have been subjected to. Aziz loses calm over the outrage around the marital rape joke and asserts that people slammed the line without even understanding the context. 

“A lot of people said the dialogue insinuated that marital rape is ok. What’s the line? A man seems to be saying ‘If I do this I’m called this if I do that I’m called this also.’ Ninety-nine percent of men in the country do not even know when they are committing marital rape. Coming back home after work and waking up a sleeping wife, even if you indulge in foreplay, that’s not consent. A filmmaker presents that line in a film, everyone starts to tell him to remove that word from the film,” the director said.

Speaking of his reaction to the nasty comments, Mudassar said,  “I laughed at it for two reasons. There’s a term in the English language that got coined centuries ago when guns came out and it’s called trigger happy. I think we belong to a generation that is finger happy. ‘There’s something that’s come out, I have to react to it. This country is working because I’m reacting. If I don’t react then, this country would shut down.’ This is a part of the finger happy generation. This finger happy generation is not waiting to understand what is happening, what is the context of it. 

The trailer is good but they won’t write about it. That person will be the first one to watch the film but typing out the issue is more important at that moment. The dialogue said is in what context, a person who thinks like that what happens to him and what is the result of it – should I watch it first and then pass a judgement? No. They have fingers and they will go and say it and it’s free.”

Kartik’s monologue in the film has been termed sexist by the people on the Internet, and as a result of the massive backlash, the makers have decided to remove it from the film.

Talking of the same, director Mudassar Aziz clarified, “Coming to the removal part, we have to understand a slightly more collaborative way that on one side you are saying you want to create awareness but a filmmaker is not able to say the rape. But, you are talking about rape awareness. How are you going to do it? If you don’t define it then how is it going to happen? And going beyond that if someone says the word Balatkar 25 times, but you’ll laugh so much in the scene. Then someone wants to talk about something relevant, then you find this as a past time. That’s not how we should do these things. 

"Otherwise, if we are doing such things, we need to talk about it so the future generation is aware. Today, according to me, even a 12-year-old should know what is rape and even a 15-year-old should know the definition of consent backward. Before touching another boy, girl, man woman or child, they should be aware of what consent is. If you are not going to talk about it then we’ll stay in the caves as long as you want. You are not going to find a solution.”

Pati Patni Aur Woh is an adaptation of the 1978 BR Chopra film of the same name and is scheduled to release on December 6.