Kangana Ranaut's upcoming film Mental Hai Kya has landed in serious trouble. Soon after the latest poster of Rajkummar Rao and Kangana Ranaut starrer was dropped on social media, netizens didn’t take long to slam the makers for releasing the disturbing poster so much so that it sparked off an official complaint to the chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Prasoon Joshi by The Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS) who has called the film, “discriminative, stigmatising, degrading and inhuman in projecting mental disorders and persons." The members of Psychiatric Society have termed the posters and the title as atrocious and insensitive towards people who are actually suffering from mental health issues, reports Firstpost.
According to a report in The Hindu, the complaint addressed to CBFC Chief Prasoon Joshi, states that Mental Hai Kya helmed by Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures, seems to violate many section of Mental Health Care Act, 2017. The Hindu has quoted the letter as, “We take serious objections to the title of the movie which is discriminative, stigmatising, degrading and inhuman in projecting mental disorders and persons who suffer from mental disorders. We strongly demand the title to be removed with immediate effect preventing further damage to the modesty of mental health service users. The Central Board of Film Certification being a quasi-judiciary body makes it more legally bounded to set an example to the citizens and be guardian of rich Indian heritage and culture.”
“We also demand to censor any sequence that is violating the rights of persons with mental disorder. We presume this letter as a legal warning to any such events, currently or in future, subjective that comes under the purview of CBFC,” letter also says.
Mental Hai Kya's Poster
President of Indian Psychiatric Society, Dr. Mrugesh Vaishnav has told The Hindu, “According to a study carried out by NIMHANS and the Health department of the government of India in 2016, 1/4th of the Indian population suffers from mental illness. There are lots of myths and misconceptions in our country surrounding mental illnesses. People still go to fake healers and often feel they are possessed. In this situation, when you have such a title of a film, it is wrong. The country is coming out of the stigma and media support is important. Members of the film fraternity have themselves come out with their stories. Will you call them mental?”
Image Source:Instagram/rajkummar_rao,HQ Desi
According to a report in The Hindu, the complaint addressed to CBFC Chief Prasoon Joshi, states that Mental Hai Kya helmed by Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures, seems to violate many section of Mental Health Care Act, 2017. The Hindu has quoted the letter as, “We take serious objections to the title of the movie which is discriminative, stigmatising, degrading and inhuman in projecting mental disorders and persons who suffer from mental disorders. We strongly demand the title to be removed with immediate effect preventing further damage to the modesty of mental health service users. The Central Board of Film Certification being a quasi-judiciary body makes it more legally bounded to set an example to the citizens and be guardian of rich Indian heritage and culture.”
Indian Psychiatric Society has officially now asked an explanation for the posters and how the movie is choosing to symbolically represent mental illness. This is a huge step. pic.twitter.com/aRtWBj27zb
— Sonali Gupta (@guptasonali) April 19, 2019
“We also demand to censor any sequence that is violating the rights of persons with mental disorder. We presume this letter as a legal warning to any such events, currently or in future, subjective that comes under the purview of CBFC,” letter also says.
Mental Hai Kya's Poster
President of Indian Psychiatric Society, Dr. Mrugesh Vaishnav has told The Hindu, “According to a study carried out by NIMHANS and the Health department of the government of India in 2016, 1/4th of the Indian population suffers from mental illness. There are lots of myths and misconceptions in our country surrounding mental illnesses. People still go to fake healers and often feel they are possessed. In this situation, when you have such a title of a film, it is wrong. The country is coming out of the stigma and media support is important. Members of the film fraternity have themselves come out with their stories. Will you call them mental?”
Image Source:Instagram/rajkummar_rao,HQ Desi