Arjun Reddy kissing poster removed: Makers offer apology for using controversial photo

The makers of Arjun Reddy have removed its controversial kissing poster and offered an apology after a women's organisation raised objection against this kind of promotion of the movie.

The makers of Arjun Reddy, which is set to hit the screens on August 25, had used a poster featuring the steamy lip-lock of Vijay Devarakonda and Shalini Pandey for its promotion. This poster had graced thousands of the walls in many places across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It was also stuck on some TSRTC buses.

The poster of Arjun Reddy did not go well with many and it sparked a debate on the film's promotion. Workers from a women's organisation reportedly got down to roads and protested against it. They demand the makers to remove the posters and offer an apology for their controversial promotional strategy for the movie. The makers also faced a lot of criticism on social media.

Senior Congress leader MP V Hanumantha Rao was returning from a meeting held in Gandhi Bhavan on Sunday, when he saw the poster of Arjun Reddy on a TSRTC bus. He immediately stopped the bus on the road of Nampally and tore the objectionable poster. "Governments should not encourage such ads and commercials for money. They will have an adverse impact on the minds of youth," said the ex MP.

The controversy surrounding Arjun Reddy poster created a lot of buzz in the media. Finally, the makers realised the heat and intensity of the issue, which would have taken a toll on its prospects at the box office, if it was not addressed in time. They removed the film's controversial photos in both Telugu speaking states.

"It's the intent that determines and differentiates representation of sex and voyeurism in film. If the aim is to titillate the audience consciously by luring, that is voyeurism. If the filmmaker simply wants to represent an act of sex as part of his narrative, without manipulating the audience is simple representation of sex," Mahesh Kathi, film critic and ex-Bigg Boss contestant writes on his Facebook page.

"In laymen's terms, double meaning is used to titillate audience and films like #ArjunReddy simply represent sex. Voyeuristic films disguise sex in a dubious and repulsive conjuncture that is more dangerous than simple and straight representation of sex. I am all for more direct sensuous and sexy films than double meaning cheap films," Mahesh Kathi.