EXCLUSIVE: Leena Yadav: It’s shocking that the culture that created Kamasutra, is so ashamed to talk about sex

‘Parched’ fame director Leena Yadav recently attended the 49th International Film Festival(IFFI) in Goa. It was during the panel discussion ‘Calling The Shots: Women Directors in Indian Cinema’ moderated by director Shashank Khaitan, where Leena spoke about the gender discrimination she faced during the initial stage of her career as a freelance editor. The other female directors who were part of this discussion were Gauri Shinde and Meghna Gulzar.

Leena rose to fame as a director with the controversial movie ‘Parched’ that starred Tannishtha Chatterjee, Radhika Apte, Surveen Chawla, Sayani Gupta in pivotal roles. From the concept of the movie to the leaked lovemaking scenes of Radhika Apte and Adil Hussain, the movie was in news for all the wrong reasons.

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In the film, there is this particular scene where ‘Lajjo (Radhika Apte) tells her husband about her pregnancy and he gets violent. When questioned how she treated this particular scene, Leena said, “The way I approached ‘Parched’,  it was not a blame game. It was not a man Vs woman film. All my characters in the film were victims of conditioning. The scene where the husband beats up his wife is because he has lived with the knowledge that he is infertile. That actually is his vulnerability that he is unable to show and it comes through violence.  Much of the violence in society does come from repression and not being able to speak and have a basic conversation about sex. For me in the movie, it was bringing the basic things out there. And it’s a shame that a culture that created Kamasutra is so ashamed to talk about sex.”

Post, ‘Parched’, Leena is working on ‘Rajma Chawal’. The film is set to release on Netflix this Friday, i.e  November 20.

Also Read: ‘Parched’ director Leena Yadav overwhelmed with Ajay Devgn’s support!