Actress Jyotika has come under criticism after an old video of her remarks about South Indian cinema resurfaced online.
What's Happening
- The clip is from a press event for Shaitaan held last year, where Jyotika spoke about the limited importance given to women in the industry.
- She had specifically mentioned that female actors were often not given equal space on film posters, while praising Ajay Devgn and Mammootty for highlighting women in their projects.
- At the event, Jyotika said, "I have acted with almost all the leading actors in South India. But women don't get much importance there, not even on posters. People like Mammootty and Ajay Devgn give women prominence."
The Internet Reacts
The video has now gone viral, prompting backlash from a section of social media users who felt her statement was unfairly generalising the South Indian film industry.
Several users shared posters of her past Tamil films, pointing out that she was prominently featured in many of them.
One user wrote, "Acted in Kollywood, made her salary, married Suriya & living a peaceful life in the South where people cherish this couple. Nothing wrong in appreciating colleagues there, but don't compare and talk badly about South."
Another pointed out that she was given major visibility in the posters of Chandramukhi. A third comment read, "It's fine to praise the people you work with, but you shouldn't do it at the expense of the industry that gave you recognition and success. Show appreciation without putting down the very field that made you who you are."
Background
Jyotika, who has primarily worked in Tamil and Hindi cinema, has also appeared in Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada films. She was most recently seen in Netflix's Dabba Cartel alongside Shabana Azmi, Shalini Pandey, Nimisha Sajayan, and Anjali Anand.
Earlier this year, she appeared in Srikanth with Rajkummar Rao and in Shaitaan with Ajay Devgn and R Madhavan.
