PremiumBad Girl director Varsha Bharath on backlash: 'We live in a society where caste is a...'
Bad Girl director Vasha Bharath addresses the backlash over the portrayal of caste, and asserts that the film isn't targeting any specific community but is set within a real, relatable context
Last Updated: 10.02 AM, Jan 29, 2025
It’s been a few days since the teaser of the upcoming Tamil film Bad Girl released online. However, the talk around the film has not died, given how social media stands polarized on it. The teaser, which shows, a rebellious teenage girl from a privileged community, defying the taboos of society, netizens have been both critical and welcoming of the teaser.
Directed by debutante filmmaker Varsha Bharath, an erstwhile assistant of Vetrimaaran, the coming-of-age drama is produced by the Viduthalai director. The film is all set to premiere at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam soon, to compete for the Tiger Award.
Bad Girl director Varsha Bharath: I can make films only with what I have seen and grown up with
Speaking to OTTplay about the controversy and backlash, Varsha, who joined social media very recently to promote her film, says she is still getting used to the apps but is on the ground with conversations that are happening around the film.
“Overwhelming number of people are loving the teaser, and that’s what matters. As far as targeting a community, I can only tell the story that I know. It is a rooted story, and the reason it comes across as authentic is because I have told it in a personal manner. I can make films only with what I have seen and grown up with. It involves a lot of research if I am making films which I am not aware of. Human dramas need not have that, unlike historical drama. When I am doing human drama, I am setting in a world that is familiar to me, and the milieu is also personal to me,” she adds.
‘We live where caste is a real thing, and every protagonist belongs to some caste’
The unfavourable responses to Bad Girl primarily stemmed out from how the protagonist was shown to come from a certain community’s household. This paired up with how the protagonist goes on to talk about taboo topics, has become the point of contention for many.
Varsha’s reply to this is, “We don’t live in a casteless society right? We live in a society where caste is a real thing, and every protagonist belongs to some caste. Whether you choose to show it or not is a choice. You can gloss over it, or show through some detailing. I don’t know if I have targeted a community, but I have set it against a milieu. Everybody should be critical of their own surroundings at one point. That is the only way any kind of change can happen because we can say with nuance.”
The director also adds, “I have lived experience of seeing both good and bad in every person belonging to this community in my family or surroundings, for instance. The advantage of family dramas is that we need not show humans as black and white. It is dumb to say I am targeting a community when the protagonist also belongs to that community and I am not demonising them or anybody. The agenda of the film is to be soft, accepting and non-judgemental. Everyone can be critical of their community and that is when it comes authentic.” Varsha also says that Bad Girl is not a film that will be targeting any communities or groups.
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