What's the Simon Wiesenthal Center, why they objected to 'Bawaal'
Starring Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor, the Bollywood romantic drama film Bawaal has landed in international trouble. The film has drawn massive criticism for its portrayal of Jewish oppression under the Nazi regime ever since it was released on Amazon Prime Video last week. Now, a Jewish human rights organization, Simon Wiesenthal Center, has demanded the streaming platform remove the film.
Why does this story matter?
Bawaal follows a troubled married couple, Ajay and Nisha, who take a trip to Europe to save their failing marriage. It features scenes referring to the Holocaust and uses Hitler as a metaphor. In one scene, Nisha says, "We are all a little like Hitler, aren't we?" while another scene, where they visit concentration camps, has the dialogue: "every relationship goes through their Auschwitz."
Know about the Simon Wiesenthal Center
The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a Jewish human rights organization that works around the world to combat anti-Semitism and hate, supports Israel, and ensures the security of Jews globally. It is a UNESCO-accredited NGO that imparts lessons learned from the Holocaust to younger generations.
What did Simon Wiesenthal Center say?
"By having the protagonist in this movie declare that 'every relationship goes through their Auschwitz,' Nitesh Tiwari trivializes and demeans the memory of six million murdered Jews and millions of others who suffered at the hands of Hitler's genocidal regime," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC's Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action in an interview to The Jerusalem Post.
'Makers should stop monetizing 'Bawaal'
The organization demanded Amazon remove the film for "its outlandish abuse of the Nazi Holocaust as a plot device." Cooper accused the filmmakers of making a "fantasy sequence at the Nazi death camp" to gain PR. He also said they "should stop monetizing Bawaal by immediately removing this banal trivialization of the suffering and systematic murder of millions of victims of the Nazi Holocaust."
Earlier, Dhawan defended criticism surrounding the film
Earlier, Dhawan had compared Bawaal's backlash to what Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer was getting due to a controversial scene with Bhagavad Gita. "Some people got triggered or sensitive about this (using Holocaust as a motif in Bawaal). But I don't understand where that sensitivity or trigger goes when they watch, suppose an English film, I'm saying for example," said Dhawan in an interview.
