Aanand L Rai denies trivialising mental health in Sara Ali Khan’s Atrangi Re, Dhanush’s stalking in Ranjhanaa: ‘You have to understand…’

“When I am getting on the floor, I go with those positive intentions of capturing something for the story and to entertain my audience without making fun of a mental illness. It is not that. You have to believe the intention of the maker. That is required,” he said.

He then spoke about his 2013 romantic drama Ranjhanaa, starring Sonam Kapoor and Dhanush. The film was a hit, but a certain section felt that it glorifies stalking. On this, the filmmaker said, “So, yes, we have to be very careful and feel responsible for whatever we are doing, but that should be proportionate to the intention of the maker rather than picking up a subject and say, ‘Oh, Ranjhanaa was all about stalking’. It was not. It was not about stalking for me at all, otherwise I would have treated it in a very different way. The best way to measure this is the audience reaction. They would have said it, that it is about stalking. They said it is about love because, I think, people closest to the maker is the audience. If they didn’t like Zero, they didn’t like Zero and I accept it, and I learn from it.”

The filmmaker is now putting together a new movie with Dhanush, which is rumoured to be a sequel to Ranjhanaa. He said in an interview with Bollywood Hungama that this is not true.