Churni Ganguly defends clichés about Bengalis portrayed in RARKPK

Ever since the trailer of Karan Johar’s ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani’ dropped earlier this month, fans and celebrities alike have been gushing about the film. In a new interview with a leading media house, actor Churni Ganguly, who plays Alia Bhatt’s mother in the film, addressed the criticism of how Johar has portrayed a Bengali family in the film.

Reacting to the buzz around a scene that has come under scrutiny, where Ranveer Singh’s Rocky mistakes a portrait of Rabindranath Tagore as Alia’s character Rani Chatterji’s ‘dadaji (grandfather)’, Churni defended how the film portrays Bengalis. She added ‘portraits of Tagore are seen in many Bengali houses’.

“There are certain events that have gradually crept into the Bengali system but if you want to project a family as quintessentially Bengali, you need to include these things. I think that things like Ranveer’s character addressing Rabindranath Tagore as dadaji worked well for us. Portraits of Tagore are something you see in many Bengali houses.”

Churni further said, “When you’ve to project a Bengali family, you need to refer to certain stereotypes. These aren’t even stereotypes. According to me, it’s all essentially ‘very Bengali’. We still don’t wear lehengas at our weddings. We’ve still stuck to our sarees.”