Ekta Kapoor explains whom the middle finger on ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ poster was for

Did you see the poster of ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha‘ with the lipstick replacing the middle finger? Of course you did. How could you not? The poster was a perfect answer to those who tried to repress a movie which depicts women not as flowery objects, but as real human beings with desires.

The movie’s history with CBFC, the famous ‘sanskari’ board which is known to swing its axe at the wrong place, is known to all. If not, let us refresh your memory. CBFC denied a certificate to this award-winning venture, damning it for it was too ‘lady oriented’ for them, for it showed women, especially Indian women, having sexual fantasies and desires. It was too much for the minds that think children come through photosynthesis, and not s*x.

However, the battles were won, and the movie is finally hitting the Indian screens, this July 21. Naturally, on seeing the poster, we all assumed the middle finger is for CBFC. But no, it isn’t and here is the producer Ekta Kapoor herself explaining the same. (Also Read: The new trailer of ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ is everything CBFC does not want you to see)

Ekta clearly said at the official trailer launch event, that the finger was not for CBFC, but for society as a whole which keeps on putting tabs on anything and everything a woman does.

She said, “I have no issue with CBFC. My problem is with the society, which talks about the same thing but in its own way. So, CBFC is mirroring the society. We will trivialise this whole thing if we make it about CBFC. It’s a larger issue. If you talk to a woman she will give you at least five incidents in a day, 5-10 in a month for sure where she had to give proofs of being a ‘woman’, may be at a male-dominated work place or when she has to try to come across as smarter because she is good looking.”

“There are many such instances and women learn to combat them from a very young age. So, this finger, this lipstick is for the society that doesn’t allow us to come out and curbing our voice. So, it’s not about CBFC. It’s about an ideology, it’s not about men again. I am going to do a campaign ‘lipstick for men’. There are a lot of men who have made us the women we are today, like my father. There are many women who want a son to be born and hence put their daughter-in-law through abortion. So, it’s about the ideology, not men and women,” Ekta added.

She further said, “When I went to watch it, I thought it would be pretentious, very arty… But after I saw it, I felt it was a stark entertaining film. It was right there, staring me in the face and I never had a more honest conversation with myself than I had after watching the film. We are so scared to feel, that now it is our second nature to be shy about our sexual fantasies and sexual desires. The film stared at me and asked me a question. As a producer you have made a financial decision but it’s time that as a woman you made a decision from your heart and I did that.”

Well, we are definitely waiting to catch this one, to celebrate the women that we are.

Kadambari Srivastava

Grammar Nazi, word weaver, dreamer, bibliophile, technophile, caffeine addict, foodie, shuttling shopaholic! Mash it in a Bollywood recipe and voila! Pushpa, you’ve got her!