Nitesh Tiwari says he is hurt by people questioning the intent behind Bawaal, explains film’s controversial Auschwitz scenes

He said, “You can question the creative process, you can question the creatives, but please do not question the intent. The moment you start questioning the intent, it becomes hurtful. It puts a question on your credibility, which has taken so many years of hard work to build. That is something that I think should be avoided. I’m all for criticism, but it should be a conversation.” Reflecting on his career, the filmmaker said, “I have faced criticism on all my movies. Even Dangal. Some people called it patriarchal, and asked how (Aamir Khan’s character) could force his opinion on the girls. On Chhichhore, some people called it insensitive. Can you believe it?”

Unpacking Bawaal’s Auschwitz scenes, the filmmaker added, “There are so many good messages which are there in the movie. You take out one or two odd incidents, and run down the whole film. That means you do not believe in any of those strong messages which the film stood for.” He said that the Auschwitz scenes have ‘predominantly’ been understood the way he wanted. “However, I am a bit disappointed with the way some people have comprehended it. That was never the intention. It would never be my intention to be insensitive in any which way… Don’t we see Ajju and Nisha getting completely troubled and moved by what they see in Auschwitz? They do. They see the prisoners, they see how they were stacked, they see how they were exterminated. Are they being insensitive about it? No. They are moved to tears.”

Both Janhvi and Varun also attempted to defend the movie. While Janhvi said that she has spoken to an Israeli professor whose relatives were killed during the Holocaust, and he was moved by the film, Varun asked why the same scrutiny isn’t applied to films not in the Hindi language.