Actor Kanika Dhillon is content with the response her projects over the last one year, including Haseen Dillruba (2021) and Rashmi Rocket (2021), received. However, it was her this year’s outing as a writer, Raksha Bandhan, which ignited a lot of discussion, as the film’s subject revolved around the practice of dowry. A section criticised the makers for showing the social evil.

The actor-writer says, “Aanand (L Rai, filmmaker) sir, Himanshu (Sharma, co-writer) and I set a goal, not to educate the people on Twitter and the metros, who know that dowry is not good. They know a woman should be self-reliant. We were talking to people from the interior Hindi belts, where these concepts are still alive. We have the statistics. Women dowry deaths are rampant, mostly happening in the interiors,” says the 40-year-old.

The protagonist of the film, played by actor Akshay Kumar, represented the section that didn’t know that dowry is a social evil, continues Dhillon.

“His character didn’t know anything about women’s empowerment. So, we had to take the focus there. We chose a regressive narrative so that we could arrive at a progressive one. I totally understand why the viewers felt it was regressive. But as a writer, we can’t talk to the same audience all the time,” Dhillon reasons.

She cites the example of her own other film, Kedarnath, which was set in the heartland.

She adds, “The section that found it weird is the one that’s educated and empowered, so some things will make them uncomfortable. If we are not making you feel that, that means we are not doing something right. Discomfort is a good thing. If there’s no reaction, there’s no piece of work.”