Tandav Controversy Worried The Family Man 2 Makers

The Family Man 2 garnered good reviews all over. Though the makers and the actors are now happy with the outcome and response from the audience, there were times when they were very much worried after seeing what happened to another series.

The Family Man 2 co-director Suparn Varma revealed that what happened with Tandav worried them. The Saif Ali Khan starrer Tandav faced a huge controversy in January after the makers were accused of hurting religious sentiments and multiple FIRs have been filed against them. Not just that, but the controversies around Mirzapur also worried The Family Man 2 makers, as on how their series would be received by the audience.

The Family Man 2 was scheduled for release in February, but the makers decided to postpone it to a later date due to controversies around other Amazon prime series, Tandav, and Mirzapur.

The co-director said, ‘It is, in general, a worrisome development, not just us but every show that you are doing. It also makes you question what is going to offend who and you have no idea because anybody can get offended. We did look at our show, we were cognizant of what we were doing, we didn’t do it for effect, it was integral to the show. But there was a worry how it would blow up’.

Varma also spoke about the controversies around The Family Man 2 due to Raji’s (Samantha) character as a Sri Lankan liberation fighter. The alleged portrayal of Eelam Tamils and also the darkened skin color of Samantha scared The Family Man 2 directors but after the release, everything went calm.

Justifying the skin tone, the co-director says it was done for a simple reason. When a person lives in a jungle literally picked up from the school, tortured, thrown in war camps, and becomes a guerrilla warrior in the hot baked sun of Sri Lanka, the skin tone is normal.

Speaking about the plot set in Chennai, he said it was to highlight the issue of Tamil Eelam. “It is unfortunate in our country… the South in a way or even Mizoram or Nagaland are integral parts of our country but we focus more on Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore or Kolkata. Beyond that, we don’t go in. These societies are very inflated and isolated, Tamil culture is so rich,” he added.