What’s the ‘Brahmin’ controversy & misogyny around IFFR 2025 NETPAC Award winner Varsha Bharath’s Tamil film ‘Bad Girl’: Explained

Varsha Bharath (left); Anjali Sivaraman in stills from Tamil film 'Bad Girl', which won the NETPAC Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

As Anuja in Sachin Kundalkar's book-to-screen film Cobalt Blue (2022), Anjali Sivaraman, who is also a singer, had already displayed traits of an unconventional girl, who sports short hair and wants to become a hockey player. And has a sexual awakening towards the same man her brother loses his heart to. Then we see her as Suhani, as the daughter of a rich industrialist who likes a boy from a class less privileged than hers, in Ashim Ahluwalia's crime drama series Class (2023), a coming-of-age tale about the messy lives of teenagers. The spotlight is on Sivaraman in Varsha Bharath's directorial debut 'Bad Girl', which is again a coming-of-age story, that was at the prestigious Tiger Competition and has bagged the NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award. The last Tamil film to receive this honour was Arun Karthick’s Nasir in 2019. Notable past Indian winners include Mani Kaul’s Naukar ki Kameez (1999) and Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Vidheyan (1995).

Bad Girl revolves around the life of a school-going Brahmin teenager who is struggling with societal expectations and her own desires. She eventually starts dating a boy and is shamed for it. With Sivaraman leading the cast, Bad Girl boasts an impressive ensemble featuring Shanthi Priya, Hridhu Haroon (of Cannes Grand Prix-winning All We Imagine as Light fame), Teejay Arunasalam, and Saranya Ravichandran in key roles. The film marks music composer Amit Trivedi’s much-anticipated Tamil debut. Editing is helmed by Radha Sridhar and cinematography by Preetha Jayaraman, Jagadeesh Ravi, and Prince Anderson.

Anjali Sivaraman in a still from 'Bad Girl'.

It has a similar premise as last year's Shuchi Talati's Sundance-winning Girls Will Be Girls, produced by Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal, but Bad Girl is being claimed as a very different film, with a local flavour and context. Its caste angle has already stirred up a hornet's nest.

While the film received a prestigious recognition globally, back home when the trailer of Bharath's upcoming Tamil movie Bad Girl was released online on January 26, what ensued was a barrage of vitriol including from a Kollywood filmmaker, targeting the producers of the film Vetrimaaran and Anurag Kashyap. Just on the basis of the trailer, Mohan G Kshatriyan took an affront to his presumption that Bharath's film shows the upper-caste Brahmins in poor light and spotlights a free-spirited Brahmin girl who has an active sex life. Because Brahmin girls don't have sex or desires, is it?

Reacting to the teaser, Mohan G Kshatriyan wrote on his official X (formerly known as Twitter) account, “Portraying a Brahmin girl personal life is always a bold and refreshing film for this clan. What more can be expected from Vetrimaaran, Anurag Kasyap & Co.. Bashing Brahmin father and mother is old and not trendy.. Try with your own caste girls and showcase it to your own family first."

While one would expect and be proven right by the number of Brahmin and upper-caste foot-soldiers on social media spewing venom with their half-knowledge, Mohan G Kshatriyan, better known as just Mohan G, is a non-Brahmin and Vanniyar caste activist.

First, logic asks, why would a non-Brahmin caste activist become so hurt about a film that, even if one were to believe his accusation, is being critical of the Brahmins. He is not a Brahmin.  Second, it augurs the question, what kind of caste activism has he been doing if he doesn't understand the historical fascist oppression that Brahmins have meted out to others whom they labelled as lower-castes.

Vanniya Kula Kshatriya, a Dravidian caste, is categorised under the Most Backward Caste category in Tamil Nadu but socially placed above the Dalits. Perhaps, from there, comes this false sense of superiority and demeaning Dalit lives and voices, in real as well as in his films. Mohan G's films, such as Draupathi (2020) and Rudra Thandavam (2021), are known to brandish his extremist and regressive views, if he tries to show that the Vanniyar caste charts its roots to royal lineage in the former, he normalises and glorifies police brutality in the latter, he also uses the term 'nadaga kadhal' (fake love) to justify violence against Dalits. These films reflect a maker who — according to a Quint review of his films — champions "caste fanaticism combined with zero historical understanding of the struggles of the oppressed to attain the rights they have now."

Mohan G seems to wear his dislike for the likes of Vetrimaaran, Pa Ranjith (an extended cut of whose film Thangalaan also showed at IFFR this year) and Dhanush — who have spoken of caste atrocity (of Dalits) through their work — and have all supported and championed 'Bad Girl'.

There might be another reason why Mohan G is trying to appease the Brahmins. Perhaps, as a damage-control mechanism, since the director was arrested last year after he made a controversial statement claiming Palani panchamritam, at the Palani Arulmigu Dhandayuthapani temple, has contraceptives mixed in them.

A still from 'Bad Girl'.

Stories of women, female desire and gendered struggle is near-absent, women are either there to propel the hero's story or are susceptible to sexual violence and need rescuing by male saviours or are used as pawns to trap men. Not to forget, women in Tamil and Telugu cinema cannot be of any other skin tone but be extremely fair. The sexism and misogyny runs deep. That was another reason why Bharath's protagonist played by Sivaraman is shown as a simple acne-faced, oiled-haired schoolgirl, who harbours certain aspirations as any girl of that age would. Bharath is here to defy the industry's gender and beauty norms.

In none of a majority of the social media trolls is Varsha Bharath even mentioned, denying her agency and pointing fingers at the men instead who have shown support. It speaks of a greater misogyny in the south Indian film industry which doesn't even let the women speak or try and hear them out. It speaks of our larger conservative, patriarchal society. Where are the women filmmakers in the Tamil film industry trying to tell their stories, not pander to what men think women stories should look like?

Tamil filmmaker Leena Manimekalai, who is also a #MeToo survivor, finds creative support outside of the Tamil film industry, which has a 'boys club' problem, she has said in the past. Manimekalai has championed human rights, especially of the marginalised people, such as the Dalit, the oppressed Puthirai Vannar washerfolk among the Dalits, refugees, LGBTQIA+ community, etc. (Sengadal, Kaali, Maadathy), and has also faced severe backlash. Observing the hate towards 'Bad Girl', she wrote on her Facebook page, "A woman writes and directs a film. But no credit [is given] to her. No agency to her. No mention of her. Everybody is after the men who produced and presented it. Even the haters make female authors invisible!"

Tamil actress Shanti Priya (who did two Hindi films, Saugandh and Ikke Pe Ikka, with Akshay Kumar in the 1990s) responded to the backlash on January 29. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), she wrote, “Art is a medium of expression, and cinema often reflects the complexities of society, relationships, and identities. Films like these aim to break stereotypes and shed light on unexplored narratives, often challenging societal norms across all communities, not just one. Portraying the life of a Brahmin girl (or anyone from a particular community) is not about “bashing" but about storytelling — presenting raw, authentic characters that represent reality (sic)."

The actress defended the filmmakers, saying, “Vetrimaaran and Anurag Kashyap are known for their bold and unflinching take on social themes, tackling inequalities and uncomfortable truths. Their intention is not to offend, but to spark conversation and encourage audiences to reflect on the intricacies of life and tradition. Art doesn’t have to align with everyone’s comfort zone—it is meant to provoke thought and promote empathy for experiences beyond our own (sic)."

When Varsha Bharath, 33, who stays away from social media, was asked about the hate directed towards her film, being touted as anti-Brahmin by trolls, she said in many of her interviews: “Because we don't live in a caste-less society, you have to root a character somewhere...Bad Girl is set in a milieu that I relate to...I can make films only with what I have seen and grown up with...Everybody should be critical of their own surroundings at one point." Bharath, who joined Vetrimaaran after Aadukalam came out in 2011, for Udhayam NH4, Vada Chennai and Visaranai, said in The Hollywood Reporter interview: "This [Bad Girl] is a human drama, so, it made sense for me to root the character in a world I am familiar with to allow me to tell an authentic story.” Further responding to a false narrative that she is being used as a tool by her producers to push their anti-Brahmin agenda, she said: “That is condescending, I am not someone that can be used to push any agenda.”

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Bharath didn't have a speech prepared for the award ceremony at IFFR, she had no hopes of winning, she said, with a smile, at the podium. Bad Girl is, essentially, a straight-from-the-heart story about a girl going through the motions of her life. Men seem to have a problem with that. They are crying wolf even without having seen the film, which will, hopefully, release in Indian theatres only after it completes its festival run.

At the very least, Indians now are aware of who Varsha Bharath is. Hers is a new name added to the growing list of a considerable number of women filmmakers to have emerged last year — Kiran Rao, Payal Kapadia, Shuchi Talati, Sandhya Suri, among so many others — who are trying to tell stories through their gaze and reality. For decades, we have been fed with men's limited imagination of women on the screen. Now, let the women tell their stories, sit back and watch.