When Kaushik Babu, a Nandi award-winning child artiste made the short film Sita, I Am Not A Virgin, little did he know he was making way for a controversy. The short film starring Instagrammers Deepthi Sunaina and Shanmukh Jaswanth, got a lot of flak soon after the release of the film’s poster on social media. A complaint was lodged against the film, citing that the title hurts Hindus’ sentiments.
“The lawyer who filed the complaint had issues with us using the phrase ‘I am not a virgin’! Contrary to people’s assumption that it is click bait, we were only trying to send out a message,” shares Kaushik, who has since lodged a complaint against those who have sent him abusive messages on social media, indicating that the whole scenario is an attempt to come into the limelight using their film. Kaushik based the film on the Delhi rape incident and the mass molestation in Bangalore on New Year’s Eve of 2017.
“Deepthi, who stars in the film, has lakhs of followers on social media. This is a reverse case where not us, but the complainants are trying to get mileage out of our film. The lawyer who filed the complaint (Vellore Prasanna) had earlier filed complaints on films like Denikaina Ready and Laxmi Bomb,” he says.
Shanmukh, one of the leads in the film, shares, “Whatever is happening is ridiculous. Our aim was to send out a message. It is a bold subject, but there’s nothing controversial like people are making it out to be. Sita is just the name of a character, and the film has nothing to do with the Ramayana. Without watching the film, assumptions are being made based on the title.”
