{"id":64861,"date":"2025-10-08T05:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T05:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/64861\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T05:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T05:56:07","slug":"rishab-shetty-defends-portrayal-of-women-in-kantara-after-backlash-cinema-reflects-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/64861\/","title":{"rendered":"Rishab Shetty defends portrayal of women in Kantara after backlash: \u2018Cinema reflects society\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Actor-filmmaker Rishab Shetty<\/a> has addressed criticism about the portrayal of women in Kantara <\/a>films. He shared that while female characters are crafted to be strong and impactful, their journeys are ultimately shaped by the story\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n

\"Rishab Rishab Shetty feels cinema is a reflection of reality, portraying both its brighter and darker sides. <\/p>\n

He added that cinema often reflects society, and filmmakers cannot always modify narratives to fit external expectations.<\/p>\n

Rishab Shetty on backlash over female portrayals<\/p>\n

In 2022 after the release of Kantara, the actor-filmmaker faced intense backlash for a scene in which he pinched his heroine\u2019s waist without her consent. He looked back at the criticism in an interview with Times Now<\/a>, and spoke about the context behind the act.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn it, there was Shiva\u2019s journey, who is not just a hero but also a villain. People misunderstood him, thinking the hero is doing something wrong. I was just showing what he shouldn\u2019t do, but is doing the opposite. He has faced a lot of negativity, but later he will reach enlightenment. The story also shows how situations lead to change. The mother\u2019s character was very interesting and powerful. Many people may have opinions, but we can\u2019t change the story. Cinema reflects society,” Rishab said.<\/p>\n

Responding to the criticism around his films as well as ones like Sandeep Reddy Vanga<\/a>\u2019s Animal, Rishab noted that cinema is a reflection of reality, portraying both its brighter and darker sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cStories in cinema often reflect society. Cinematic liberty allows filmmakers to recreate what we see in society. Some of it is positive, some negative. We present everything, and it\u2019s up to the audience how they perceive it. Films can give important points and information; people take away the good, while the negativity is shown and then left behind,” he said.<\/p>\n

About Kantara Chapter 1<\/p>\n

At the moment, Rishab is enjoying the praise coming his way for Kantara Chapter 1, which is working well at the box office. Written and directed by Rishab, the original Kantara was a sleeper hit, earning over \u20b9400 crore worldwide on a \u20b915 crore budget. The prequel \u2013 Kantara Chapter 1 \u2013 is set a thousand years before the events of the film. The film also stars Rukmini Vasanth, Jayaram, and Gulshan Devaiah<\/a>. The film has collected \u20b9370 crore worldwide in its first five days of release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor-filmmaker Rishab Shetty has addressed criticism about the portrayal of women in Kantara films. He shared that while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[52569,156,33778,52567,409,111,139,69,52568,33779,52570],"class_list":["post-64861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-cinema-reflects-society","tag-entertainment","tag-kantara-chapter-1","tag-kantara-films","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-portrayal-of-women","tag-rishab-shetty","tag-rishab-shetty-kantara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}