#Indian filmmaker Leena Manimekalai

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'काली' पोस्टर विवाद पर एक्शन में भारतीय उच्चायोग, कनाडा सरकार से कहा- हटाएं आपत्तिजनक सामग्री

‘काली’ पोस्टर विवाद पर एक्शन में भारतीय उच्चायोग, कनाडा सरकार से कहा- हटाएं आपत्तिजनक सामग्री

Image Source : TWITTER/LEENAMANIMEKALI Leena Manimekalai   Kaali Movie Poster Controversy: फिल्मकार लीना मणिमेकलई की डाक्यूमेंट्री ‘काली’ के पोस्टर पर विवाद बढ़ता ही जा रहा है। ‘मां काली’ के विवादित पोस्टर मामले को लेकर कनाडा में भारतीय उच्चायोग ने बयान जारी किया है। भारतीय उच्चायोग ने कनाडाई प्राधिकारियों से लघु फिल्म ‘काली’ से जुड़ी सभी आपत्तिजनक सामग्री हटाने की अपील की है। उच्चायोग ने कनाडा…

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There is public outrage in India over the depiction of a Hindu goddess that critics say disparages the religious figure.

The image appears in a poster promoting the new short film Kaali by Canadian-based Indian filmmaker Leena Manimekalai. The poster depicts Hindu goddess Kaali smoking a cigarette and holding an LGBTQ+ flag.

After filmmaker Leena Manimekalai shared the poster in a tweet Saturday, the day a museum in Toronto hosted the film’s first showing, the image of the smoking goddess sparked a furor in India with angry Hindus demanding a ban on the film and legal action against the filmmaker.

Monday, the Indian High Commission in Canada said it had received complaints from Hindu community leaders over the “disrespectful depiction of Hindu gods” in the poster, and it urged the Canadian authorities and the event organizers to withdraw all “provocative” materials related to the film.

A day later, the museum issued an apology, saying the film was no longer being shown there, and that it regretted having “inadvertently caused offense to members of the Hindu and other faith communities.”

Manimekalai wrote and directed Kaali as an academic project in her graduate study program at Toronto Metropolitan University. In the film, Manimekalai is an incarnation of the goddess Kaali. Living as a queer female filmmaker in Toronto, she attempts to find belonging in a land stolen from its rightful inhabitants— the First Nations.

As the goddess of death, time and change, the dilemma of the reincarnated goddess in the film finds a resolution only at the end, when it dawns on her that ultimately, the land can be owned by no one; the universe is in a state of constant flux. The promotional poster shows a scene in which, dressed as the goddess Kaali, Manimekalai shares a cigarette with a homeless man.

“When I embody Kaali, I am Kaali myself. My Kaali is queer. She is a free spirit. She spits at the patriarchy. She dismantles Hindutva. She destroys capitalism,” Manimekalai told VOA. “She embraces everyone with all her thousand hands.”

Death threats

Manimekalai’s tweet of the poster went viral Saturday with tens of thousands of members of the Hindu community retweeting it with a hashtag reading “Arrest Leena Manimekalai.”

Police cases were filed against her in several states for “hurting the religious sentiments” of Hindus.

One Hindu group said in a police complaint that the depiction of the goddess Kaali in the poster was “completely unacceptable to Hindus” and Manimekalai “deliberately distorted the Hindu religion and culture with malicious intent to insult Hindu religious feelings.”

Manimekalai said she and her family members received death and rape threats from more than 200,000 social media accounts. In a video that surfaced online, a Hindu priest from the north Indian temple town Ayodhya threatened: “Do you want your head to be severed from your body?”

In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Manimekalai’s native state in India, police arrested the female leader of a Hindu right-wing group for allegedly threatening her with death. The leader allegedly posted a video online in which she condemned her using strong words and threatened to kill her.

Twitter on Wednesday removed Manimekalai’s poster tweet.

Reacting to Twitter’s action, she said in a tweet, "Will @TwitterIndia withhold the tweets of the 200000 hate mongers?! These lowlife trolls tweeted and spread the very same poster that they find objectionable. Kaali cannot be lynched. Kaali cannot be raped. Kaali cannot be destroyed. She is the goddess of death."

The filmmaker said that the reaction in India against her film cannot be termed just an “outrage.”

“If a person in the street pounces upon you, it is a crime. If a person violates your body in a public place, it is sexual harassment. If a person throws acid on your face, it is an attempt of murder. If a person uses foul language against you, it is abuse. If a person goes after your family and friends and supporters and threatens them, it is violence. If all this is done by a mob, how can you call it just an 'outrage'?” she asked.

“How can I report 200000 ids? Where should I report? Who is going to take action? There is no law in India. The Constitution of the country is dead.” _________________________

Just gonna tack on this link to a related piece.

Kaali poster row: ‘Goddess Kaali is queer, free spirit that spits on patriarchy,’ says Leena Manimekalai

[themediapedia]

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE OTT AUDIENCE

Sick of cable TV? Simple solution, all you need to do is to just switch to an "Over The Top (OTT)" Platform and have a stable internet connection! These online platforms provide us with a multitude of television and film content right at our fingertips.

With the onset of the global pandemic, theatres were forced to shut down, and cable tv providers who were deficit of content, had to play reruns of already existing content, making OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Disney+, etc. grow in demand amongst the populations confined to their homes during the pandemic.

According to a survey conducted by MoMAGIC, 55% of Indians prefer OTT platforms while 41% still prefer DTH services (Direct To Home).

According to the “Indian Over-the-Top (OTT) Platforms report 2020" Survey by MICA Ahmedabad, the primary consumers of OTT content in India were men, where in the number of male viewers was double the number of female viewers for most streaming platforms. A majority of the viewers are both Generation Z and Millennials.

Those consuming OTT content tend to be more open to new and different content as well. For example, there are a large number of independent artists who have small budgets but beautiful scripts. They didn't have much of a reach during the pre-covid times while promoting through Theatres which did not offer them much viewership, but through OTT, small films have the potential to get a big reach. Gatham, a small-budget Telugu thriller, for instance, was released directly on Amazon Prime Video and quickly became a hit on the platform. Its success led to the release of other small budget films on platforms like Netflix and Hotstar as well by the producer. Since the audience have more time on their hands and a good payment plan, they are more willing to engage with content they are unfamiliar with.

In India, most OTT platforms focus primarily on Hindi content. This has led to the rise in demand for regional content to cater to the preferences of the local people who majorly come from tier II and tier III cities. Hoichoi, a Bengali OTT, even has an international market, making up 40% of their audience, specifically Bangladeshis. Many OTT services also provide subtitles, hence hiring multi-linguals to translate them, so people from around the globe can also view these shows.

The advertising sector has also greatly benefited by placing ads on OTTs. According to the OpenX survey conducted in the US, 66% of the OTT viewers had discovered a new product through these ads whilst streaming, 65% of them checked out the product on another screen and 40% of viewers had paused what they were watching to go online and check out or even purchase the item being advertised to them.

There are always two sides to a coin, so though there are many advantages of OTT services, there exists a few disadvantages as well. Many people tend to binge watch shows continuously, to escape boredom and to live vicariously in another world. This leads to us not being able to differentiate between art and entertainment. We tend to binge and forget everything we see after some time. The lack of breaks between watching these videos makes us lose the ability to critically think about what we have viewed as well.

Overall, the OTT market is expected to grow astronomically in the next few years and it will definitely connect us all through entertainment!

https://www.filmcompanion.in/features/malayalam-features/amazon-prime-netflix-hotstar-opened-up-space-for-independent-filmmakers-leena-manimekalai-don-palathara-nithin-lukose-jeo-baby/

https://www.exchange4media.com/digital-news/regional-platformsdriving-the-second-ott-wave-in-india-114698.html

https://www.uscreen.tv/blog/ott-statistics/

https://www.indiatoday.in/television/web-series/story/doordarshan-plans-to-have-its-own-ott-platform-1433982-2019-01-18

https://www.isme.in/impact-of-ott-media-on-the-family-and-the-individual/

https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/media/55-of-indians-prefer-ott-platforms-vs-41-that-still-prefer-dth-momagic-survey/70858815

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Susi and Manjari slut-shamed me when I supported Leena, says Amala Paul

Susi and Manjari slut-shamed me when I supported Leena, says Amala Paul - I applaud her for the courage she showed by narrating her ordeal on a public platform. Actress Amala Paul, who was bold enough to inform the office bearers of Nadigar Sangam when she was sexually harassed in Malaysia during a dance rehearsal, once again proved her grit in such matters by supporting filmmaker Leena Manimekalai, who recently accused director Susi Ganesan of sexually harassing her in 2005. Amala who starred in the Susi Ganesan-directed Thiruttu Payale 2which released last November, has issued a #MeToo revelation saying she had faced a similar situation with the director while shooting for the film. The Mynaa actress posted yet another tweet where she has said, “Just got the shock of my life! @DirectorSusi & @sgmanjari called & I picked up to explain the stand. While I was trying to pacify his wife; Susi started abusing me & to my surprise his wife started laughing & they both joined to slut-shame me. Dey feel dey can scare me with dese tactics.” In a statement, Amala had then called Susi “a man who has a twisted set of moral values and utterly low respect for women.” In outright support to the latest revelations on the director, Amala says in her statement, “I support Leena Manimekalai’s allegations and can imagine this episode happening with her, from a man who has a twisted set of moral values and utterly low respect for women. She being an aspiring director could have made her an easy target for such an incident to take place. Me too, despite being the leading actress for Thirutupayale2, was subjected to double entendre, misrepresented offers and unchivalrous bodily contacts. This pretty much made my experience of shooting for TP2a mentally fatiguing one. I can totally understand what she could have been subjected to. I applaud her for the courage she showed by narrating her ordeal on a public platform. In our emerging economy and ever-expanding female work force, this behaviour is rampantly occurring everywhere, in all trades and industries. These men treat their housewives and daughters different, but when it comes to their colleagues they don’t miss a chance to show an upper hand and take advantage. This is one of the main reasons we Indians are unable to unlock our true potential either in creative, service or spiritual industries. We have heard a lot of cases from spiritual and creative industries. But true change will come when service and unorganised sectors are also heard from on their #metoo ordeals. It’s high time that government and judicial benches devise a system to address these issues of our society and not let the female workforce of the future be subjected to such harrowing #metoo incidents.” Susi and Manjari slut-shamed me when I supported Leena, says Amala Paul Read the full article