Filmmaker Shaji Kailas, actor Prithviraj apologise for derogatory dialogues against differently-abled children in ‘Kaduva’

Filmmaker Shaji Kailas has expressed apology over derogatory dialogues against differently-abled persons in his film ‘Kaduva’. The State Commission for Persons with Disabilities had on Saturday issued notices to Shaji Kailas and producers Supriya Menon and Listin Stephen based on a complaint filed by ‘Parivaar’, an association of parents of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In a sequence from the movie, the protagonist played by Prithviraj Sukumaran says that differently-abled children are born with such conditions as a result of the sins of their parents.

“I express my unconditional apology over dialogues in my movie which have caused pain to the parents of children with disabilities. I request you to consider it as a mistake on our part and forgive us. The fact is that screenwriter Jinu who wrote the scene, or I who directed the sequence or Prithviraj who acted in the scene did not think about the other aspects of the dialogue when we were shooting it. We were only thinking about conveying the extent of the villain’s cruelty to the audience,” said Kailas, in the apology posted to his Facebook page.

He said that the script was following the oft-repeated line that the succeeding generations will suffer for our wrongdoings. These were the words of a person overcome with emotions, uttering them without thinking about the emotional repercussions.

“We did not intend to say that differently-abled children are suffering for the doings of their parents. I have seen some writings from parents, saying that they were pained by these dialogues in ‘Kaduva’. Although my apology might not undo the hurt that was caused, I am still extending an apology,” he said.

Prithviraj too shared the post on his official page and wrote, “Sorry. It was a mistake. We acknowledge and accept it”

Parivaar, in its complaint, said that such unscientific and insensitive dialogues cause immense pain to the parents of differently-abled children as well as the children themselves. It is a crime as per Section 92 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which deals with punishment for intentionally insult or intimidation with intent to humiliate a person with disability in any place within public view. Several people had raised the issue in social media following the release of the film on Friday.