Ram Gopal Varma’s epic foot-in-the-mouth act gets him in trouble, yet again

• Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma is in hot waters yet again for making derogatory comments about women. And this time, it is about Droupadi Murmu, the BJP’s presidential candidate.
• Varma has tweeted: "If Drapaudi is the President, who are the Pandavas? And more importantly, who are the Kauravas?"
• This isn’t the first time that director Varma has gotten into trouble because of his big mouth.

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has been at it yet again. Only this time, his sexist and derogatory comments against Droupadi Murmu, the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) presidential candidate, have landed him in legal trouble. In a tweet on June 22, Varma had said, “If Draupadi is the President, who are the Pandavas? And more importantly, who are the Kauravas?”

This is not the first time that the director has stirred trouble by making sexist remarks against women. From Aishwarya Rai to Sunny Leone, his comments have put him in the limelight.

Two days after commenting on the Presidential candidate, he said, “This was said just in an earnest irony and not intended in any other way...Draupadi in Mahabharata is my favourite character but since the name is such a rarity I just remembered the associated characters and hence my expression. Not at all intended to hurt sentiments of anyone.”

While Varma did try to save face with two subsequent tweets that said candidate Murmu is an ‘incredible icon,’ a Mumbai-based lawyer has filed a criminal defamation complaint against the director for his ‘offensive’ tweets.

According to the lawsuit, Varma's tweets intended ‘to insult women's respect on social media and also amount to disrespect towards the scheduled caste (SC) community.’ Varma is no stranger to controversies, which are largely triggered by himself through his tweets.

Varma kicked up a storm on Twitter in 2020 for his sexist comments about women buying liquor. Varma’s comments invited the wrath of singer Sona Mahapatra who said that the tweet ‘reeks of sexism’ and ‘misplaced morality.’

In 2019, on international women’s day, director and producer Varma tweeted, “Is there no Men’s Day because all days in the year belong to only men and the women were given just only one day. Women’s Day should be called Men’s Day because men celebrate women much more than women celebrate women.”

“I don’t know what men should be doing to women that day but I wish one day in a year is celebrated as Men’s Women’s Day,” he added.

Two years ago, again on international women’s day in 2017, Varma made a derogatory comment about film actor Sunny Leone.

He said, “I wish all the women in the world give men as much happiness as Sunny Leone gives.”

A complaint was later filed by a Goa-based activist under the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

In 2018, a case against Varma was registered under section 67 of the Information Technology Act for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.

Another actor at the receiving end of his sexist and derogatory comments was Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in 2011.

When the actor announced her pregnancy, Varma tweeted, “I worship beautiful women and I hate to see them ever become mothers. In case of Aishwarya, since she’s the most beautiful, I hate it even more!”