Filmmaker and actor Rahul Ravindran has responded to a social media user who urged him to make a film focusing on "atrocities committed by women against men" after he made The Girlfriend (2025) featuring Rashmika Mandanna last year. For the unversed, the movie explores the toxic and possessive dynamics of her relationship with Dheekshith Shetty's character Vikram and the protagonist's journey to break free from it.
The user drew the example of the recent Ketan Sharma case where the young Pune Real Estate Firm Director was murdered by his fiancee and her partner during a trek and requested Rahul Ravindran to make a film based on the recent incident which has made headlines across India.
Replying to the user on X, Rahul clarified that the themes explored in The Girlfriend stem from his observations of systemic gender inequalities rather than isolated criminal incidents.
"I don't claim to know everything bro... so educate me if I am wrong," Rahul began, before explaining that he does not view crimes committed by individual women as evidence of widespread oppression against men.
"I don't see atrocities of 'women' on 'men' at all. I see some horrible incidents of sociopathic human beings who happen to be women, committing horrible crimes. On the other hand... I see a self-sustaining system that has lasted centuries that suffocates women," he wrote.
The filmmaker went on to say that everyday social structures and microaggressions often force women to "shrink their identities" and deny them an equal place in society. Rahul added that his perspective comes from witnessing the struggles of many women around him and that he felt a responsibility, as a man who benefits from existing power structures, to address those issues through storytelling.
While acknowledging that crimes against men can be "ghastly and terrible," Rahul stressed that such incidents are fundamentally different from the themes he intended to explore in The Girlfriend.
He also said that he had not yet read the details of the specific case referenced by the user but was open to exploring it creatively if he found the story compelling enough. However, he noted that such a film would focus on an individual criminal act rather than portray it as representative of women as a group.
Talking about The Girlfriend, Rahul pointed out that the film's male character Vikram is neither physically abusive nor unfaithful. "Vikram in The Girlfriend isn't a murderer or a rapist. There is no physical abuse. He is in fact faithful. And yet... there's one section like the original tweet that gets triggered by the film. Ask yourself why that is," he wrote.
Rahul concluded his response by welcoming criticism and discussion, saying that public conversations and differing viewpoints are healthy. "If you or anyone else has a problem... call it out. It's a healthy habit. I promise to take the feedback and introspect," he said.
