Director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, who was at the centre of a controversy over his film "S Durga", says what happened with him was not a unique incident but merely a pushback from a patriarchal society which is uncomfortable when challenged.
The Malayalam movie, that dominated the headlines for weeks after it was unceremoniously dropped from the Indian Panorama section of IFFI last year, is finally up for release on April 6.
Sasidharan says the society behaves like a spoilt sport, especially when women, who had earlier accepted their role as an 'obedient, submissive' individual, call out its hypocrisy.
"We are told that father is the most powerful person in the family and then come uncles and brothers. The mother comes after them. And what is a mother primarily doing? She is washing clothes, cooking for you, cleaning. If a mother starts going out, say, to the cinema halls - she becomes a bad influence.
"Suddenly, she'll be expelled from the circle of morality. And now in modern times, there are conflicts. Earlier, women used to accept the roles set by the society for them. But now they have started revolting - they have started speaking up. So the patriarchy is in direct war with this conflict," the director told PTI in an interview.
Sasidharan says it was not difficult to understand why his movie, earlier titled "Sexy Durga", was treated as a threat as it raises serious concerns about women's safety in the society that regards itself as the custodian of all that is "good and pure".
"It's not easy to deal with this thousand years old system, and if you try to change something you'll face a lot of trouble. That's what happened with me. (But) This is the right time to point out the this hypocrisy - to discuss and debate, then only the society will progress. Otherwise we will be stuck in this same circle."
"There is a disparity in the society's approach towards women. We consider her a goddess, mother and sister but in newspapers you see lots of cases of outrage against women. It made me think 'why is this disparity a constant in our culture?
"Hypocrisy is laid bare when you find a woman according to your convenience and don't leave the chance to molest or rape her. This needs to be analysed."
"We consider Durga as the powerful warrior goddess. When the time comes, she can even come to Shiva's aid who is unable to destroy the asuras. But will we protect the girl on the street if her name is Durga?"
"I'm not making films to make someone happy or hurt them. I'm making films for my purpose. It's not for earning money. If I wanted to do that I would have made a love story with superstars."