Deepika Padukone‘s #VogueEmpower video by Homi Adajania called, My Choice, became a talking point as soon as it released. The video became viral overnight and there was as much flak as there was appreciation for it. While the film made an impact for sure (We, for one, loved it!), it sadly also came under the scanner for being sexist, pretentious and endorsing adultery among other things.
While, even Homi Adajania also wrote an open letter of sorts defending the film, Deepika has maintained a strong silence over the matter. Well, not anymore.
In an interview to film critic and journalist Anupama Chopra, Deepika, for the first time ever, is telling us her side of the story.
Here are 5 things she said:
1. On how did she feel about the negative reactions…
It was definitely disappointing at some level because we all know the intention.
2. On her reaction to Homi Adajania’s vision…
When Homi and everyone came up with the script and read it to me, I said it… I said “Homi, personally, there are a couple of lines I don’t identify with” but that’s me having a conversation with my director. It’s his creative piece… I can’t mess with that. But as an individual, there are some lines (from the video) that I don’t endorse or that I don’t stand for.
3. On what disappointed her the most…
I looked at it from a macro perspective and not a micro perspective. It is slightly disappointing when – one, I’m being accused of something that I am endorsing, when I don’t. Honestly, that’s not even the part that bothered me. The disappointing thing was the fact that (while talking about) an issue which is so relevant at this point in all our lives, we choose to pick out lines from the larger narrative and story the film was trying to make and blow it completely out of context.
4. On staying positive…
Having said that, I’m always someone who looks at the brighter side and will always be happy that there’s also a large part of people who has appreciated and understood what we were trying to do.
5. On why she didn’t speak about the video sooner…
I’ve never been someone who reacts at the spur of the moment. You have to let these things breathe and you have to allow people to react in the way that comes to them naturally and it didn’t need for my reaction at that point. In fact, no one even asked for my reaction at that point. They just jumped to conclusions!
Check out the entire interview here!
What are your thoughts? Tell me in the comments below!