Raksha Bandhan actor Sadia Khateeb responds to the film being labelled as ‘regressive’

Actor Sadia Khateeb, who plays Gayatri, one of the sisters in Akshay Kumar’s latest release Raksha Bandhan, has reacted to viewers calling the film ‘regressive’.

In a recent interview with India Today, Sadia said that some people have different perspectives and that she doesn’t even want to mention what sort of names her own brother uses for her. “There’s nothing more regressive and problematic than that,” she said.

Raksha Bandhan, directed by Aanand L Rai, is about Lala Kedarnath (Akshay Kumar), who promises to get his four sisters married before he can marry his girlfriend, played by Bhumi Pednekar. Besides Sadia, Deepika Khanna, Smrithi Srikanth and Sahejmeen Kaur play Akshay’s sisters. While the film highlights the special bond between a brother and sister, it has also been called out for using words like ‘double-decker’ and ‘amavas ki raat’ for women in the movie.

“Agar double-decker aur amavas waali baatein koi aur karta, toh mujhe problematic lagta (If someone else would have talked about double-decker and amavas, then I would have found it problematic). I don't even want to mention the names that my own brother uses for me. There's nothing more regressive and problematic than that,” said Sadia.

“If you want to show the reality of a brother-sister relationship, toh aapko bhi pata hai, if you have a brother, vo gharpe kaisa treat karta hain. Mera bhai toh kehta hain mujhe taras aata hain un logo pe, jaha pe teri shaadi hogi, kitne gunaah chadenge hum jab hum tumhe denge (I pity those people where you will get married). He says stuff like that. Some people will laugh over it, some people will say 'tera bhai kitna badtameez hai (your brother is shameless)' even though he is the best brother in the world. Some people will still have all different perspectives. It is okay. People have choices. People have perspectives. That's okay,” she added.

Read our review of Raksha Bandhan