A section of social media users have taken offence to the teaser of actor Nayanthara’s latest movie Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food, for ‘negatively’ portraying Iyengar Brahmins. The teaser shows Poorani (played by Nayanthara), a young woman from what seems to be a conservative Brahmin family, secretly reading recipes for dishes like chicken kebab and a garlic based curry. The teaser was released on Tuesday, October 24.
Offended by the depiction of a Brahmin woman defying their ‘culture and tradition’ and reading a recipe about how to cook meat, some internet users were quick to criticise the teaser.
“From the teaser of latest Nayanthara film Annapoorani: An orthodox Iyeng@r family girl is secretly reading recipes for Chicken Kebab and Sudu Curry (Garlic). This is Kollywood's obsession with TBs [Tamil Brahmins] by constantly ridiculing their beliefs and lifestyle. So much for diversity,” said one account on X (formerly Twitter), by sharing screenshots of the teaser.
Others called it a “publicity stunt” to stir up controversy before the release and ensure that more people would watch it. Another account said, “They want the movie to garner as much negative publicity as possible because even negative publicity is good publicity. The only way to prevent this is to go the Vishwaroopam way and prevent the movie from passing censors without proper cuts. Litmus test for central govt controlled censor board.”
The offended individuals claimed that Tamil cinema always ‘mocked’ Brahmins through their depictions. One X user called out the supposed “hypocrisy” of the Tamil film industry and followers of Dravidian principles for being ‘casteist’ towards Brahmins.
However, some of them objected to the criticism and pointed out that food choices are individual and merely looking at recipes does not defame or insult a community. One user went on to say that they know several people from the Iyengar community who eat non-vegetarian food.
“What I infer from it: embracing adulthood, the character in the video defies perceived/unreasonably imposed culinary restrictions. Her choice of food to cook or eat is a testament to her autonomy and a powerful statement of personal freedom!,” said another person.
Annapoorani is written and directed by Nilesh Krishnaa. Along with Nayanthara, the film also stars Jai, Sathyaraj, KS Ravi Kumar and others. Thaman will be composing music for the film. The release date of the film is yet to be announced.
Watch the teaser of Annapoorani here: