Mumbai: Even as the Akshay Kumar-starrer ‘Housefull 5’ is leaving cash registers ringing at the box office, a section of movie buffs criticised the film for being ‘sexist’ and women-driven.
Amid the criticism, ‘Housefull 5’ director Tarun Mansukhani told News18 Showsha that he prefers to look at the brighter side rather than controversies surrounding his film.
The director said that people tend to scrutinise only successful films and he is happy that ‘Housefull 5’ is doing well at the box office.
“I feel like that there’s a lot of scrutiny on social media. I also believe that scrutiny tends to only happen on successful films. You tend to keep quiet if a film isn’t working at all. That’s when no one has any opinion and they don’t say anything. So, when people are making noise about my film, I actually feel very happy about it,” he said.
Clapping back at the trolls, he said, “It means that they’re watching it with a certain eye and sensibility. You can scrutinise it. That’s fine. You’ve paid money to watch it and so, you get to have an opinion on my film. It’s not a placid film about which you don’t care or have an opinion. For those who’re calling it out, I want to say that it’s your choice of seeing and focusing on that aspect of the film.”
He added, “Akshay decides to play Jolly and he comes to know that there’s a missing son. So, he hires the character of Nargis (Fakhri) and asks him to join him on this search. One thing leads to another and they decide to backstab together. It’s Sonam (Bajwa) who backstabs Riteish (Deshmukh) and helps further the plot, that in turn helps bring a third Jolly. The actual plot is driven by women – to get the money. There’s a Soundarya who’s equal parts a suspect in this entire thing because she’s busy transferring funds into an offshore account.”
Referring to criticism that characters in his film as ‘flawed’, Tarun said, “They aren’t placid characters. In a murder mystery, nobody is a good person. Everyone is a bad person and that’s what the endeavour was because they’re all suspects and if they ethically or morally bad enough to commit murder, is the question. One may choose to see a sexist side to it but I feel that I’ve done a lot more. If people haven’t seen the film, how will the plot details transfer to them? And when they see it, it’s the audience’s choice to focus on whichever aspect they want to.”
Co-written and directed by Tarun Mansukhani and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, Warda Nadiadwala and Firuzi Khan under Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, ‘Housefull 5’ features Akshay, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Sanjay Dutt, Fardeen Khan, Shreyas Talpade, Nana Patekar, Jackie Shroff, Dino Morea, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri, Chitrangada Singh, Sonam Bajwa, Soundarya Sharma, Chunky Pandey, Nikitin Dheer and Johnny Lever.
The film hit theatres on June 6, 2025.
