Pradeep Ranganathan's Dude has clearly emerged as a Deepavali winner, as it is inching towards collecting nearly Rs 60 crores at the box office on its tenth day since release. Meanwhile, on the content front, the film's protagonist and director, Keerthiswaran, are receiving backlash for a particular dialogue, which has gone viral on social media.
In the film, Mamitha Baiju's Kural proposes marriage to Pradeep Ranganathan's Agan in a scene that has been captured by audiences from theatres and shared widely on social media. In the scene, as Mamitha is on one knee, Pradeep tells the character a vulgar and offensive line, which translates to, "Why are you sitting in a position usually seen in a pornographic movie?" Audiences have already been questioning the need for such a dialogue between the film's male and female protagonists.
In a recent interview with Sudhir Srinivasan, director Keerthiswaran went on to explain the dialogue, unprompted. He said, "The scene is based on my friendship with women and the friendship I see online between men and women. I am not trying to normalise it, but I am able to see the usage of such phrases and words very normally. If those who are expressing their contempt for the dialogue thought about the conversations they have with their friends, they would understand. Additionally, when you're friends with someone for a long time, gender does not really come into play. I would speak in the same manner to both a male and a female friend. I know my rapport with my female friend would allow for me to say such things."
Following this explanation, many have called out Keerthishwaran for unnecessarily normalising a behaviour that is unwarranted. One X user, named The Red Albatross, shared the clip and wrote, "This is the kind of lame explanation you give when you haven't been a true friend to the women in your life. Men with genuine women friends know the difference between casually saying cuss words among friends and demeaning her in public…"
Many other such X users have also opined against normalising the vulgar dialogue. Also starring Hridhu Haroon, Sarath Kumar and Dravid Selvam, Dude marks the Tamil feature composition debut of Sai Abhyankkar.
