Bollywood has long blurred the line between passion and possession, but Radhika Apte is no longer staying silent about it. The actor recently criticized Bollywood's tendency to repackage power and control as romance, pointing out how such portrayals normalize unhealthy relationships.
From 'Animal’s' rage-filled alpha male to films like 'Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat' and 'Tere Ishq Mein', recent releases have glorified men whose idea of love demands obedience, emotional submission and self-erasure from women. These characters are often framed as intense, misunderstood or deeply romantic, even when their actions are rooted in dominance.
Apte’s latest film 'Saali Mohabbat' takes a different route. Her character does not spiral into violence because of obsessive love, but after years of cheating, humiliation and emotional neglect. As she told Hindustan Times, the breaking point is not mohabbat, but “accumulated acute injustice.”
Radhika Apte elaborated on the issue, saying, “I don't think that in the film, what happens is something happening out of passionate love. It's happening because of accumulated acute injustice and treatment of her. I don't like to glorify that as some passionate love for the partner or anybody else in the world. This is where we go wrong on how we view it.”
Prior to this, actress Parvathy had spoken about how she feels the glorification of toxic relationships can be damaging. Speaking at the same roundtable, Deepika Padukone backed her up by pointing out how influential films can be, "In our country, cinema has the power to influence. It may not be the only reason for influence … but whether we like it or not, cinema and cricket are the two most influential things."
Credit: AFP
This is not a new trope. Older Bollywood films like 'Darr' and 'Kabir Singh' also blurred boundaries, turning stalking into devotion and aggression into intensity. Apte’s critique forces a larger question. Are filmmakers merely reflecting society’s warped ideas of romance, or are they shaping how future generations understand love itself?
Given how easily audiences are influenced by films, do filmmakers have a greater responsibility towards the public? Or are movies just creative works that shouldn't be viewed as gospel? The debate is age-old.
