Filmmaker Leena Manimekalai on Wednesday said that she does not “feel safe anywhere” due to the backlash against the poster of her documentary Kaali, The Guardian reported.
The poster shows a woman dressed as the Hindu deity Kaali smoking a cigarette and raising the pride flag of the LGBTQ community.
Manimekalai told the newspaper that she had the right to take back her culture and texts from “fundamentalist elements” and that trolls attacking her had nothing to do with religion or faith.
“It feels like the whole nation – that has now deteriorated from the largest democracy to the largest hate machine – wants to censor me,” the filmmaker said.
The Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police have registered separate first information reports against the Madurai-born filmmaker after two complaints were filed accusing her of hurting the sentiments of the Hindu community.
On Tuesday, the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto issued an apology after complaints were registered against Manimekalai for sharing the poster. The documentary was screened at the Aga Khan Museum on July 2 as part of a week-long festival called Rhythms of Canada.
The museum issued the statement a day after the Indian High Commission in Canada urged the authorities and the event organisers to withdraw all the alleged provocative material.
On Wednesday, Twitter in India pulled down Manimekalai’s tweet featuring the poster and said that it did so in response to a legal demand.
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