Sanya Malhotra dismisses men calling her film Mrs ‘toxic’, says ‘cooking is not a gender thing’: ‘Richa was being controlled, not given freedom’

She shared her frustration around how her film was reduced down to ‘Richa not being able to cook for two people.’ She shared, “Many people reduced it down to ‘why is she making a fuss out of having to cook for two people?'” She asserted, “She didn’t have a problem with cooking.” “She was doing it all with zero appreciation. The problem came when she wanted to do something and she showed the family that I am capable of doing household chores and I want to go out and do something that I love to do… but, she was not given that freedom. That was the problem.”

Sanya sighed as she said, “Anyway, I believe the story has reached the people it was made for. And this was never meant to start any war of sorts. This story was Richa’s story.”

In the same interview, Sanya also stated that cooking is not just a woman’s job. “It is a life skill. Everyone should know how to cook. It is not a gender thing. If you want to survive, then you need to know how to cook.”

In another section of the same event, Sanya shared how she naturally gets attracted to women oriented stories. “I have always been attracted to amazing women. The first and most important thing I see in a script is how a woman is being portrayed on screen. I am naturally attracted to characters which are really strong and relatable. Second thing I see is the director and the producer. The third thing which is very important is the story because at the end of the day, the story is the hero of the film.”

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When men called the film ‘toxic’

Previously, calling the film toxic, SIFF took to its official X handle and wrote how men work 8-9 hours at construction sites, railway stations, airports, factories, courts, police stations, restaurants, and country’s borders. “A happy woman cooking food, doing dishes and pressing clothes of her father-in-law is oppression for her. Women inherently believe workplace means a comfortable air-conditioned place. They do not consider work at construction sites or at train stations etc.”

The post, however, received backlash from Sanya’s fans. They called out SIFF for their “badly written” post. Others questioned objection on the movie by comparing it with Arjun Reddy. “We are said movies don’t impact anything in real life when we talk about movies like Arjun Reddy… so why are you so threatened by Mrs?”