Chitrangda Singh has shared her thoughts on the criticism around ‘Housefull 5’. The film faced backlash online for how female characters were shown. Many people said the jokes were mostly aimed at women’s bodies.
Talking to ‘News 18’, Chitrangda said she did think about the comments once they started coming in. But she also explained how actors see a film when they sign it. “I did give it a thought [once the comments began coming in]. But when you hear a script, you don’t hear a shot breakdown. You only visualise as much as the screenplay tells you,” she said. She added that beyond that, it’s the director who decides how a scene is shown on screen.
Chitrangda agreed that in ‘Housefull 5’ the women had less strong roles compared to the men. She also shared a reality many female actors face. She said women often have to first prove themselves in glamorous roles before getting stronger parts. She made it clear she is not defending the film fully. “I’m not trying to justify any of it. But I think every actor only has so much control over what they’re doing,” she said. Talking about physical comedy, she added that it can feel uncomfortable at times when women are involved. “Sometimes physical comedy where a woman is involved does get a little, I suppose, uncomfortable to watch,” she stated.
The actress explained that comedy is tricky. Sometimes jokes land well and people laugh. Sometimes they don’t. “Sometimes they land and sometimes they don’t. It’s only when they don’t land that people start coming and criticising,” she said. She gave examples of actors like Jim Carrey and Eddie Murphy. She said their films also had bold physical comedy and people enjoyed them. She even mentioned an old film called ‘Party’ and said such scenes existed earlier too.
Chitrangda also spoke about ‘Dhurandhar’ and how it was judged by some people. “Sometimes when a film like ‘Dhurandhar’ comes, some people may only look at it as a film with violent scenes, but that’s the storytelling,” she explained. She said every genre has its own style.
Sharing her personal view, she said, “I don’t judge it. It’s up to the audience and their discretion to watch or not watch or agree or not agree with it.” She added that while she may not feel comfortable watching certain scenes, people should give films some freedom. “Sometimes, we get slightly over-judgmental. But you got to take it in the right vein and give it certain cinematic allowance,” she said.