Ektaa Kapoor Shuts Down Trolls, Addresses Negative Reviews On Thank You For Coming: 'The Amount Of Noise...'

Bhumi Pednekar and Shehnaaz Gill’s Thank You For Coming finally hit theatres on October 6. The film has garnered mixed reviwes from audiences and critics. It had a slow start at the box office with Rs 1.06 crores at the ticket window on Day 1. The film showed a steady growth on it’s second day by minting Rs 1.56 crores. The overall collection of the film now stands at ₹4.29 crore. Amid the criticisms, Ektaa Kapoor, producer of the film, has taken to her X(formerly Twitter) handle to address them.

On Monday, Ektaa Kapoor wrote on the popular social media handle, “So I’m back briefly on Twitter before my team shuts me out for talking too much.” She reshared a review that dubbed the film ‘Thank You For Coming’ as disappointing. She penned, “The amount of noise #thankyouforcoming is making Freedom cannot be decided and accuracy (don’t talk about accuracy) toh aap chodd hi dijiye! On a positive note this review made me smile. Polarised content is what is the need of the hour.”

She further added, “ThankYouForComimg is a little mad movie made by mad crazy partner Rhea (Kapoor) that doesn’t smash patriarchy but tickles with feathers under its nose so all the bulls***t gets sneezed out! There is only mad love for the film or unpalpable anger. Me with my thrill issues wud (would) want it no other way! From being trolled for ruining culture because it ‘promotes’ self pleasure (how that is ruining anything if you’re keeping your hands to yourself) to being applauded by Indian and international press. #ThankYouForComimg raises a huge question how comfortable are we with women choosing themselves and who decides how much ‘freedom’ is ‘allowed’ (the irony of this statement).”

Despite A certificate and limited screens the film is also receiving lots of love with good word of mouth. Thank You For Coming is a coming-of-age comedy which follows the story of Kanika Kapoor (Pednekar), a single woman in her 30s, and her quest for true love and pleasure. It is written by Radhika Anand and Prashasti Singh and directed by Karan Boolani. Apart from Bhumi and Shehnaaz, the film also stars Kusha Kapila, Dolly Singh and Shibani Bedi in pivotal roles.

Earlier in an interview with PTI, Bhumi said the film’s story uses female desire to explore the theme of patriarchy in society. “Orgasm is a metaphor for a larger scheme of things that the film talks about. The film is against patriarchy, it is not about man versus woman, because patriarchy is not gender specific.”

“Women and men both are patriarchal. That’s the thought of the film. The film is about sisterhood, womanhood… Every film has a thought or a premise, so this is the premise of the film,” she added.

She hopes “Thank You For Coming” helps diminish the stigma around sexual liberation of women. “Till the time, ‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’ had not been released people would shy to talk about the topic of erectile dysfunction. It was an issue in families but one would not be able to talk about it, I believe that film eased the conservation.”

News18 Showsha gave the film 2.5 stars and wrote, “Thank You For Coming is a good attempt but it doesn’t pan out well. When you have two women backing a film and two female writers putting a script together, you would anticipate a more well-thought-out and less shallow portrayal of women. Yes, we do talk about men and pleasure. But there’s more to our lives. Men are just a small part of it. Sure, films don’t bear the responsibility of being the flag-bearer of morality. Women most definitely are flawed too. But hey, we aren’t frivolous. Thank You For Coming doesn’t quite hit the spot and take that from a single millennial woman.”