Sanya Malhotra, who headlined the Hindi remake (Mrs) of the Malayalam hit The Great Indian Kitchen, reacted to the men's group criticising her film over "toxic feminism." Explaining the film's motive at the CNNSheShakti 2025, Sanya categorically said that the film reached the target audience.
What's Happening
When asked about groups like SIFF - Save Indian Family Foundation's reactions on the film, Sanya said, "Problem yeh nahi hai ke khana nahin bana chahti hai. Woh khana bana rahi thi. Woh to saja ke bhi de rahi hai, with zero appreciation from the family. The problem arose when she wanted to do something, and she showed that family that I am capable of doing ghar ka kaam, and I want to go out and do something that I love to do. Aur woh usko karne nahin diya jaa raha, woh freedom nahin diya jaa rahi (The problem isn't that she didn't want to cook. She was cooking, even serving it nicely, but getting zero appreciation from the family. The problem started when she wanted to do something else and showed the family that she is capable of managing the household and also wants to go out and pursue something she loves. But she wasn't allowed to do that - she wasn't given the freedom)."
Sanya pointed out, "The problem started when she wanted to do something else and showed the family that she is capable of managing the household and also wants to go out and pursue something she loves. But she wasn't allowed to do that - she wasn't given the freedom. Jinke paas story pahunchni thi wahan pahunch chuki hai (The story has reached the people it needed to reach)."
After the release of the film in February, a men's rights organisation, SIFF - Save Indian Family Foundation, attacked the film in a series of X posts.
One of their viral tweets was, "A happy young woman cooking food, doing dishes and pressing clothes of her father-in-law is oppression for her."
In another X post, they wrote, "Women inherently believe workplace means a comfortable air-conditioned place. They do not consider work at construction sites or at train stations etc. potential workplaces".
About Mrs
In Arati Kadav's directorial, Sanya Malhotra played the character of a woman whose aspirations and dreams are choked in household chores. The film received wide appreaciations among cinegoers.
In an interview with NDTV, Arati Kadav talked about her approach for the film, "When a man tells a woman's story, he is absorbing the reality from a distance. Jeo Baby is a sensitive man. He could write and tell the story effectively. But for me, there's no distance. I have to be in Richa's shoe in every scene of the film. You can see how Richa is excited about getting married, how she sees the world around her, how she tries to please everyone. In her aspirations, we make the story more personal."