Kiara Advani who will be soon seen in Laxmmi Bomb opposite Akshay Kumar found herself in a controversy in 2019. The actress who shared screen space with Shahid Kapoor in Kabir Singh, Bollywood remake of Arjun Reddy, along with praises for her performance, was also criticized by a certain portion of the audience for the film being a misogynistic one. Finally, on actress Neha Dhupia’s podcast #NoFilterNeha5, Kiara Advani opened up on the entire controversy and kept forth her opinion regarding this controversy which divided the moviegoers into two groups.
Speaking about Preeti, her onscreen character in Kabir Singh, she shared few actors playing certain characters onscreen and people associate with it more than their real-life personality. She said, “I feel like and I realize this only because of Kabir Singh that there are certain characters, today what people know me, even after a certain body of work, they can't get over a certain character that you've played. They feel like this is you. It becomes larger than life. That's what happened with Preeti.”
Kiara who garnered all the praise for her character in Guilty and Good Newwz, shared being worried for Kabir Singh even before it released, keeping in mind the backlash which the original film had got. Adding further she said, “I was happy when Guilty came out and Good Newwz came out and people were like okay, wow, she's a versatile actress and you know I've got all the critical acclaim for. But, with Kabir, I think, it was, I was very nervous before the film release because I was aware that section of backlash would come. After all, we saw it happen with the first film. So, we knew it would happen.”
Adding further she said, “We didn't expect the extent of it because of course with the Hindi Film Industry, it's a larger audience and the way the film reached out to people, I don't think we realize that with so much love the topic would become prime-time news as well. So, that was a bit challenging but I felt like there was also so much love that there wasn't I don't know, I hope it doesn't sound wrong of me to say that it balanced out the brick-bats that came with it.” ALSO READ: Kiara Advani Birthday Special: Kabir Singh Co-Star Shahid Kapoor Has A Candid Wish For His Onscreen Preeti
Recalling a moment, she shared after Kabir Singh was screened Neha (who she is in conversation with) was in tears. She said, “I feel I have never in my career had every single person from my fraternity message me and tell me what a fantastic job I had done. I remember you coming out of our screening, like crying and hugging me and everyone was like you know, it was like you only see Preeti outburst at the end in that last scene.”
Speaking about a particular scene from the movie, Kiara said, “And, for me, that scene justified everything. For me, that scene showed her strength, she wasn't just going to just go back to the man she loved. She decided to raise a child on her own, she left, she left him, she left the man her parents forced her to marry. I just felt she was not the woman that maybe other people saw her be till that interval and I felt unfortunate for those people who did have the comments of misogyny and all of that which of course there is a part of the character but that’s something that was always known to the audience when you see it in the promos also.” ALSO READ: Shahid Kapoor And Kiara Advani's Kabir Singh Is Still At The Top; Its Music Album Crosses 1 Billion Mark
Shedding light on Shahid’s onscreen character of Kabir who is short-tempered struggling with anger management issues, she said, “You know that this is a man with anger management issues, that's the character narrative, that's what he took, but, I felt like in the second half you see such a downfall in his journey that it completely justified everything else for me.”
But being unhappy to a certain extent that people only noticed the slap she said, “Unfortunately, some people just made the slap, the whole movie about one slap, it was not about one slap. That's not something that I stand for. And, that's not something that I would ever stand for and that's not something Preeti stood for, either.” ALSO READ: When Kabir Singh AKA Shahid Kapoor Predicted The Perfect Bollywood Match For Preeti AKA Kiara Advani - VIDEO
Adding further she said, “Because she left him, she's like no way, you have ruined whatever we've had this entire issue and she doesn't go back to him and he comes finding her and even at that moment she doesn't want to see his face but they have a confrontation and that's what their climax scene, I think was 20 minutes long, where everything is discussed, argued and I guess, love is love at the end of the day. They both come back together.”
On the concluding note, she shared still receiving messages for the portrayal of Preeti, Kiara said, “There's a reason why till today I get so many messages about the film and I know it’s a character that is always whoever knows me will always have Preeti associated in their mind when they think of me. It’s just a, like some characters, some with actors, you always think of that character when you think of that actor so...” ALSO READ: Kiara Advani AKA Preeti Wishes Her ‘Kabir Singh’ Shahid Kapoor A Happy Anniversary, Shares Special Moments As The Film Completes One Year