Audience is not dumb, you are: Vivek Agnihotri slams portrayal of Rajasthani characters on screen

Without naming the film or the show he was referring to, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has shared a list of observations, perhaps objections, about how a character is portrayed as Rajasthani on screen. He has objected to the way Rajasthani is spoken by the actors, the portrayal of a police officer on screen and use of makeup by those playing men or women in khaki. Also read: Vivek Agnihotri supports writers’ strike in Hollywood, Gulshan Devaiah asks him about his ‘excellent research team’

It is to be noted, his tweet comes a day after the release of Sonakshi Sinha-starrer Dahaad, in which she plays a cop and Homi Adajania’s recent series Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo, which has a Gujarati setup.

His tweet on Saturday read: “Few observations: 1. Bollywood actors think that by saying hukum… mharo… tharo… they can become Rajasthani characters. Rest of the dialogues they can speak in their Punjabi, Bambaiya, Tamil, Kannada accent…”

He continued, “2. To be a cop you just need to wear tight fitting khaki clothes. With tons of makeup. 3. They think by doing dull and boring acting, speaking dialogues so softly so no one can understand is good, cool acting. 4. If you make ultra modern looking, fair and lovely, urban actors utter few Rajasthani words and abuse unnecessarily, the audience is so stupid that they will believe that these actors are indeed Rajasthani…”

Vivek further said, “5. In the scorching heat of Rajasthan, you just can’t carry so many layers of make up. 6. Please stop fitting your Western movies inspirations in Rajasthan. 7. Audience is not dumb. You are. Now repeat this million times.”

Many agreed with Vivek’s views and claimed the same was the case with portrayal of Bihari and Haryanvi characters. A Twitter user commented, “Same happens when a Bollywood plays a Bihari character. At times, it feels like laughing when they toggle between Awadh and Bhojpuri way of speaking and resorting to Lalu Yadav stereotypes. Thank God, the gap is mend by actors like Manoj and Pankaj ji.”

Another tweeted, “Superb observation @vivekagnihotri sir. Most of them use Haryanvi instead of Rajasthani. I am personally fed up watching these actors . Don’t know which Rajasthan they show on screen.” One more said, “Yes, just add dhokla and faafda (Gujarati snacks) with typical Gujarati accent. Add “chhu” at end of hindi urdu dialogue.”

A tweet also read, “Also creativity is limited till Bengal in the east. Never seen any movie maker making movie with North East as a backdrop (baring few exceptions).” Talking about gangster dramas, a Twitter user wrote, “Same goes to UP Bihar also whenever Bollywood wants make a movie on mafia they try to fit it into UP Bihar one of the recent example is Vikram Vedha, they can show even Maharashtra or West Bengal there are also very dreaded gangsters even in Delhi and Punjab.”