Sep 09, 2024 12:20 AM IST
Under fire for hurting religious sentiments, but how appropriate is it to threaten the designer for his life?
It was only a few week’s ago, fashion designer Karan Torani left fashion aficionados in awe of his Radha-Krishna campaign titled Leela: The Divine Illusion Of Love, that featured actor Tamannaah Bhatia as Radha. The pictures were visually arresting and fashion critics couldn’t stop praising the way it was cinematographed. But the designer and his team soon began to face a backlash on social media for the way Radha and Krishna’s love was portrayed in the campaign.
Some section of online users called it blasphemous and accused the designer for ‘sexualising’ the sacred relationship between Radha and Krishna. Others even questioned Tamannaah Bhatia’s décolletage as she channeled her inner Radha in the shoot. The question is whether or not the designer was right in expressing his devotion to Radha and Krishna through this campaign, but was the trolling he and his family members were subjected to was required?
We live in a free country where everyone has a right to express their opinion through whichever medium. An artist expresses his thoughts through a canvas and a designer through his clothes and shoots. We all have a right to agree or disagree, like or dislike what they present. But we can’t spew so much hatred that the person associated with it gets petrified and removes everything he created with so much of drudgery and devotion.
While designer Karan Torani refrained from commenting on anything related to this backlash, the hate comments on his profile were out there in open for everyone to read.
The designer did speak about all the love that he had received because of this campaign. “I was at the Ambani house for Ganesh Puja and some Gujarati women came to me and told me that what I made them experience through this campaign was divine and how I brought visuals to life,” said Karan Torani.
How fair is it to bully and threaten an artist to expunge his work of art? Will this restrict other designers to push the envelop and bring their vision to life? While Karan Torani decides to move on and put an end to it all by deleting his campaign pictures, we are still left wondering how distressing the trolls can be for an artist.
