Chennai: Actor-director K. Bhagyaraj has triggered an unseemly controversy and incurred the wrath of many after speaking derogatively against women at a film function here. He alleged that crimes against women, including sexual assault, would not happen if only the women conducted themselves in proper manner.
“Women used to be within limits and were restrained till the advent of the mobile phone. It pains me to say this, but then, we find women whispering into their cell phones everywhere, even on roads. What they would talk, I wonder”, began the once-popular filmmaker, who had given several hit movies.
He then suggested that women were mostly responsible for the cases of sexual crimes. A man having an affair would take care of the chinnaveedu while caring for his wife as well; but we have seen in newspapers how a woman having an affair would kill her husband and children for the sake of the paramour, he said, adding that such incidents prove that women needed to be self-controlled and disciplined.
Bhagyaraj alleged that sexual crimes against women happened mostly because women were not careful enough. “It is not correct to blame just the boys”, he said and referred to the ghastly case of the Pollachi multiple rapes that had rocked the state last year. That crime happened only because of the ‘weakness’ of the women concerned, he said at the audio release of Karuthugalai Pathivusei movie on Monday. The film is said to be based on the Pollachi sex scam.
“Bhagyaraj should not have spoken like that”, said well-known actor S Ve Sekar, who was also present at that film function. Such talk could convey wrong message across the society, said the former MLA of Mylapore.
“Another version of pOmBaLa PoMbALaYa iRuKkaNuM. Seriously foot-in-mouth disease only”, tweeted noted journalist Megha Kaveri.
