Madhavan implies ‘life partners’ can’t be found at bars, defends stalking in RHTDM: ‘Give the boy a chance’ | Bollywood News

Unlike his co-star Dia Mirza, actor R Madhavan doesn’t find anything wrong with elements of stalking shown in their film Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein. While the film is considered to be a cult hit in many circles, contemporary readings have found it to be highly problematic. Dia has said that she doesn’t endorse certain behaviour shown in the movie, while Madhavan appears to have doubled down on his defence. He said in an interview with India TV that there was no other way but to ‘stalk’ a woman before the age of social media and phones. this standard, he said, even his father would’ve been accused of stalking.
He said, “Social media is brutal, but it keeps us in check. At the same time, you can’t make this the yardstick with which you travel to your next project…” Madhavan said that most films that people loved when they were younger would have things to complain about when viewed through a contemporary lens. “At the time when phones and social media didn’t ex, how would you contact a girl? What was considered decent? My father could be accused of stalking. If it is a love marriage, there is no way to get in touch. If a mere letter can be considered stalking…”
Also read – Dia Mirza says R Madhavan’s stalking in RHTDM was a ‘terrible’ thing, reveals how she’d react if she was offered the film today
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He continued, “In our villages, they used to have festivals every month. You know why? Because it was a social interaction. How do you meet a girl in a city today? You’re not going to meet your life partner in a bar. That’s not why you go there, right? For a normal middle-class guy, where is the opportunity for him to meet a woman? If I have to write a story, how do I write it where a guy, without social media, can approach a woman in this day and age. So, in RHTDM, what is the best way for him to do it? He did what he did. We can argue till the cows come home, but give the boy a chance.”
Madhavan said that he would go to nightclubs at one point in his life, and there would always be a couple of men behaving inappropriately with women and given other men a bad name. He said that most men these days are ‘afraid’ to approach women because they don’t want to be accused of being inappropriate.
Previously, in an interview with Outlook, Dia had said, “I can’t speak about whether that film can be made or not, because all kinds of films are going around. But if I was offered that film, I would question certain aspects of the film and hope that the writers would change it. I internalised some aspects of that film and realised that had to do with the right propagation of love. I am strongly against stalking. I think it is a terrible thing to do.”
In RHTDM, Madhavan’s character dupes Dia’s character into falling for him after stalking her incessantly. Directed Gautham Vasudev Menon, the film was a remake of the director’s original Tamil hit Minnale.