Bejoy Nambiar apologises for ‘limited’ comment

Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar-starrer Wazir seems to have stirred up a controversy days before its release. The film’s director Bejoy Nambiar has come under fire for his ‘derogatory’ statements about the differently-abled population. In an interview with a publication, the director used words such as ‘constraining’, ‘limiting’ and ‘wheelchair-ridden’ — and that hasn’t gone down too well with Javed Abidi, the Disabled Rights Group convener. Abidi said, “I am very much a wheelchair user and so is Stephen Hawking! Neither are we ‘constrained’, nor ‘limited’ in any which way whatsoever, for God’s sake. I am extremely shocked to read Mr. Bejoy Nambiar’s statement. Does he have such a regressive image of a person with disability in his mind It seems that he does.” He further added, “In the last one decade, we have heard strange vocabulary/terminology, ranging from ‘special’ people to ‘challenged’ people to ‘differently-abled’ people. It seems that a guilt-ridden India is trying to outdo one another in coining new terms and words. As if calling us by another name would change our realities. Only if India would invest as much time and resources into making all its public places accessible, into making education truly inclusive, and into making employment in the private sector firmly non-discriminatory, then millions of our disabled citizens would not be ‘handicapped’ or ‘wheelchair-ridden’.”

Reacting to the backlash Bejoy clarified, “Whatever statements I have made-whether it is within the film or during promotions, there was never any malice intended towards the disabled. Our main character (Amitabh Bachchan) is shown in a wheelchair and people should watch the film to know how sensitively we have portrayed the character, rather than picking one statement and judging me on the basis of it. I am tempted to retaliate but our film is due for release and we want to avoid unnecessary controversies. We have apologised to those who were offended.”

Abidi however clarified that his outrage was solely towards the statement and not the film’s content. “We are not objecting to the film, we are not objecting any person playing the character of a disabled. All that we are offended with is the regressive and archaic vocabulary used by the director of the film. When someone is on a public platform and is talking about women, minorities, dalits they have be careful with their choice of words.”