Kaali poster row: SC tells states not to take coercive action against Leena Manimekalai

After the poster for her film Kaali triggered a massive controversy and the filing of multiple FIRs across states against her, the Supreme Court on Friday, January 20, granted interim protection to director Leena Manimekalai from coercive action. A bench comprised of Justice DY Chandrachud and PS Narasimha has notified the various states where FIRs have been lodged against Leena to desist from taking coercive action. The bench further said that any future FIRs are to be consolidated in one state to prevent prejudice against her, The Live Law reports. The next hearing has been scheduled for February 20. 

The controversy regarding Leena’s film began in July last year, when the director, currently based in Toronto, shared the film’s poster via her Twitter account. The poster depicts the goddess Kaali smoking a cigarette and carrying the LGBTQIA+ flag. Kaali was set to premiere in Canada’s Aga Khan Museum, as part of its ‘Under the Tent’ project. The poster triggered outrage from right-wing organisations and leaders, who claimed that it hurt their religious sentiments. The filmmaker was trolled and attacked with threats of rape and murder. A hashtag demanding her arrest also went viral. Further, multiple FIRs were lodged against her in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, and other states.

Speaking to TNM, Leena’s advocate Unni Nayar said the issues highlighted in their petition were much larger than just a request to quash the FIRs. “There has been mass public violence in cyberspace against [Leena]. She has been subjected to extreme gendered abuse. The message that has been publicly sent out through such cyberbullying is that a woman who does not conform must pay the price of sexual degradation.” Unni added that, speaking as a lawyer and activist, she has “great hope that the Supreme Court would protect Leena’s various fundamental rights and freedoms, such as her right to dignity as a woman and free speech as a filmmaker. I hope that the court sends out a firm and assertive message against any form of hate-driven fundamentalism.” 

In her petition to the apex court, Leena had stated that the FIRs are “arbitrary, malicious and mala fide in nature”. The petition also said that the FIRs and threats against Leena violated her rights to creative expression, life, liberty, safety, and safe passage under Articles 19 and 21 of the Indian Constitution. Based on this, the petition pleaded that the FIRs be quashed. 

With reference to the representation of Kaali, the petition called the right-wing reactions to the poster “grossly unconstitutional and arbitrary attempt by the state to impose the idea of a unitary, homogenous version of Kali by terming it ‘Hindu’ upon other cultural, traditional and religious identities, including those from the state of Tami Nadu.” 

Further contesting the claim that Kaali is a Hindu god, the petition added that “Kaali is recorded to be a non-brahmanical, pre-vedic deity, worshipped in diverse ways as an indigenous/tribal goddess. In several parts of India, she is celebrated as part of the community, eating, drinking and making merry just like the people in the community, rather than a goddess to be worshipped from afar.” It also points out how the goddess is made offerings of meat, blood, cigarettes, and liquor in many cultures across India, “which the devotees also partake in”.

Leena, in her petition, also explained the intent of her own film Kaali, stating that it was trying to examine the history of land-grabbing from indigenous communities, alongside a depiction of the LGBTQIA+ pride through the eyes of the goddess. 

In the weeks following the film’s poster release, the Indian High Commission in Ottawa issued a statement demanding that the Canadian authorities take down all “provocative material” related to the film after it received complaints from Hindus in Canada. The Aga Khan Museum, reacting to this, issued an apology and withdrew the film from their ‘Under the Tent’ project. Also, the president of a right-wing group was arrested in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu for issuing death threats to the director in a video that was widely circulated on YouTube. In the video, a woman named Saraswati, claiming to be the president of the Shakti Sena Hindu Makkal Iyakkam, is seen using abusive language against the filmmaker and threatening to kill her. Based on this, the Selvapuram police registered a case and arrested her.