Kanika Dhillon’s latest thriller ‘Do Patti’ received mixed reviews from critics and viewers alike. Led by Kajol, Kriti Sanon, and Shaheer Sheikh, the film plays on the twin factor. Leveraging identity swap, it tried to tie together several issues and present a tantalising thriller. Recently, during her conversation with News 18, she strongly reacted to negative reviews of her film. The filmmaker stated that nowadays, everyone is a reviewer. Moreover, Dhillon said that she can differentiate between genuine negative criticism to biased personal attacks.
During her interview, Kanika was probed about the lack of a trigger warning about domestic violence in the film and the associated backlash. To this, the ‘Haseen Dilruba’ maker replied, “We deliberately did so. In a message-driven film, when you start with a message outright, the audience somehow tends to view it as something that isn’t entertaining. And I don’t want to make niche films for a specific circuit.”
Defending her rationale behind doing so, Kanika iterated that the audience was able to approach the film with an open mind. She explained, “I’ll do whatever it takes to get my film across to them (the audience) so that they watch it and then see the message in it. The way it’s written and the choices that we made for the film in terms of the screenplay, the casting and the marketing have an audience-first approach. What I’ve been hearing is that the audience really appreciated the last 50 minutes of the film. They got so emotional.”
As the conversation progressed, the filmmaker opined on negative reviews, acknowledging that creative work is open to interpretations.’ However, she iterated that she is not willing to entertain personal attacks. Dhillon remarked, “Who are these people? We aren’t making a film for them. Anybody and everybody can be a reviewer today. Everyone has access to social media and everyone has opinions. When I see the quality of reviews today, they feel like trolls to me. I only look up to a handful of reviewers, who can write unbiased negative reviews with a fair point.”
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She further added, “I’m able to differentiate between a genuinely negative criticism and a piece jahaan pe koi khunnas khaake baitha hai. When they start criticising through personal attacks at the individual rather than the film, then they become trolls. I don’t react to half of them. You can make it from the headline if it’s a trolling piece or not. In that case, I don’t open those reviews. That’s how I keep my sanity alive.”
‘Do Patti’ released on Netflix on October 25. Kanika Dhillon wrote and backed the title with Shashanka Chaturvedi at the helm.