R Madhavan Disagrees ‘RHTDM’ Was ‘Chauvinistic’: Men And Women Are Flawed In What They Do

‘Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein’, or ‘RHTDM’ as it is fondly called, enjoys a loyal fan following. But over the years, the 2001 romantic-drama, which starred R Madhavan and Dia Mirza in the lead roles, has been under the scrutiny for its romanticisation of stalking.

Well, we all do remember how in the film, R Madhavan’s character Maddy constantly stalks Dia Mirza’s character Reena Malhotra. He even impersonates Saif Ali Khan’s character and lies to Dia Mirza, in order to manipulate her into falling in love with him.

Now, in an interview with The New Indian, Madhavan said he and filmmaker Gautham Vasudev Menon followed their gut and made ‘Minnale’, the Tamil film whose Hindi remake was ‘RHTDM’. “Gautham and I followed our gut and made ‘Minnale’ and that paid off. ‘Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein’ is one of those films. Of course, we were accused of a lot of things, how we should treat women and stuff like that, which I have my own debates and arguments about, but it worked. The public liked it and it is still talked about,” the actor said.

He then wondered how his “henpecked” husband character in ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ franchise was not scrutinised even when his character was ridiculed for his physicality, but the same audience takes offence over gender politics in ‘RHTDM’.

“A lot of liberties were taken. People who accuse us of being chauvinistic in Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein, I can throw the same accusation back at them by saying you guys laugh when I (my character) was called ‘Ye adrak hai, kahi se bhi badh raha hai.’ You think that’s a joke, and it doesn’t hurt a man? I am sure men will equally be sensitive about it,” he added.

Madhavan then pointed out, “Having said that, I don’t feel anything about it… I don’t think we should become hypersensitive. This is largely a western concept that tries to make ‘so perfect’, but it isn’t. Men and women are flawed in what they do.”

Meanwhile, in an interview with Outlook, when Dia Mirza was asked if such a film would get an audience if it was made today. To which, she had said, “I can't speak about whether that film can be made or not because all kinds of films are going around. But if I was offered that film, I would question certain aspects of the film and hope that the writers would change it. I internalised some aspects of that film and realised that had to do with the right propagation of love. I am strongly against stalking. I think it is a terrible thing to do.”