The trailer of 'Udta Punjab' might have earned praise everywhere, but it failed to impress the 'Garam Masala' actress Neetu Chandra. She has penned an open letter to director Abhishek Chaubey and Alia Bhatt.
The 31-year-old actress, who hails from Bihar, slammed the 'Udta Punjab' makers for a "stereotypical" portrayal of the 'Highway' actress' character.
"It's disturbing to see the way Biharis have been portrayed in Hindi cinema over the last few years, the recent example being Alia Bhatt's character from Udta Punjab and from whatever one understands from the promo of the film, director Abhishek Chaubey is guilty of strengthening the stereotype of Biharis by creating Bhatt's character the way it is, in Udta Punjab," read the letter.
"Unfortunately, almost all the film made by Prakash Jha, who also hails from Bihar, have always stereotyped Biharis showing them corrupt politicians, cops and gangsters and in his movies, Bihar was always exaggerated to be the most dangerous place to visit as his films showed only either kidnapping and robbery and murders not realising that he himself along with leading Bollywood actors (part of his films) are maligning the name of Bihar whose history has been the richest in the world," she wrote.
"The first educational university was set up in Rajgir, near Nalanda (Bihar) and several respected religions including Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism roots have developed in Bihar. Visionaries and scholars like Rajendra Prasad (first President of Republic of India), Ustad Bismillah Khan (Shehnai maestro), Bhikhari Thakur, Vatsyayana, Gonu Jha, Kunwar Singh, Maulana Mazhrul Haq, Seewosagar Ramgoolam, Aryabhatt who invented zero among several hundreds of stalwarts of the world belong to Bihar,. So why none of the makers from Bihar and outside Bihar have ever made stories and films on these stories? Because they think that they will keep making fun of Bihars in their films and TV programs and no one will say anything against them." Neetu added.
"Stop stereotyping Bihar because you have seen Bihar through your ears not through your eyes," the 'Traffic Signal' actress concluded.
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Earlier also, in another letter, the 23-year-old actress was slammed for the same reason.
Alia then indirectly shamed her haters via a mysterious tweet.
Tweeting a picture, which read "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, plus a social media overreaction," the 'Student of the Year' actress wrote "Hmmm.