Nitesh Tiwari's romantic drama Bawaal has been surrounded by controversies ever since it dropped on Prime Video India last Friday.

In a new interview with Pinkvilla, Nitesh and actors Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor have responded to the criticism for drawing a far-fetched and insensitive parallel between the lead pair's romance and World War II.

  

The criticism came after lines in the film include one where a Holocaust survivor says "every relationship goes through its Auschwitz", referring to the Nazi Germany's infamous concentration camp where countless of Jews were killed. Another line sees Janhvi's character say that every human has a Hitler within because they're greedy.

 

Speaking about this criticism, he said, "Some people got trigged or sensitive about this. But I don't understand where does that sensitivity or trigger go when they watch, suppose an English film, I'm saying for example. They're allowed to do everything there, they're allowed to take leaps and they're allowed to show things in a certain way, but you'll find that correct. I know people have got very triggered after watching a small scene in a brilliant film, recently released. It's a scene that's important to our culture and our country. But that's okay for you. You don't feel they should be more sensitive to you? So where does your criticism go then?"

 

Now, here, Varun Dhawan is seemingly referred to the controversial Bhagavad Geeta scene in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, that released on the same day as Bawaal, in cinemas. The scene shows the titular character of J Robert Oppenheimer invoking Bhagavad Geeta during after having sex with his girlfriend. While many have objected to the scene, with I&B Minister Anurag Thakur reportedly pulling up the Central Board of Film Certification for the same, Varun seems to claim that the film hasn't been called out enough for its insensitivity towards the Indian culture.