Indian film “Bawaal” starring Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor is facing a severe backlash due to a scene, which draws inspiration from the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a Jewish human rights group dedicated to the memory of Holocaust victims, has written an open letter to Prime Video, urging them to take the movie down and stop monetizing it.
The film, directed by renowned filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari, follows a contemporary storyline that takes a disturbing turn when the protagonists find themselves in a gas chamber at Auschwitz, dressed in striped clothes and experiencing suffocation. To make matters worse, the movie uses Hitler as a metaphor for human greed, with the lead character likening everyone to the genocidal dictator.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, representing the SWC, expressed profound concern about the movie’s release in his open letter, as reported by the BBC. He strongly condemned the film for trivializing the Holocaust, emphasizing that Auschwitz should never be used as a metaphor.
The camp stands as a grim reminder of humanity’s darkest capacity for evil, and exploiting this solemn history in the movie deeply disrespects the memory of the millions who suffered and died under Hitler’s regime, he said.
If the film’s shameless producers wanted to use such an outrage to gain PR for their movie they succeeded. They must immediately remove this ultimate trivialization of the suffering and systematic murder of millions of victims of the Nazi Holocaust or @Amazon @PrimeVideo should…
— SimonWiesenthalCntr (@simonwiesenthal) July 24, 2023
The film’s release triggered outrage on social media, with viewers appalled by the insensitive parallel drawn between a romantic relationship and the horrors of World War II. The characters’ depiction of imagining themselves in the gas chamber added to the offence. Lines like “Every relationship goes through its Auschwitz” crossed a line of insensitivity that the SWC found completely unacceptable.
Given these critical issues, the SWC has called on Prime Video to act swiftly by removing “Bawaal” from their platform. Such action would send a powerful message about respecting historical tragedies and human rights. The reaction to “Bawaal” highlights the importance of filmmakers handling historical events with utmost sensitivity and respect.
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