Reacting to the ongoing controversy over Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone- starrer Pathaan, model and fitness icon Milind Soman said Monday that questions of morality are subjective and the only determinant in such things can be the legal test.
Speaking to reporters in Pune during a press conference for his multi-city cycling campaign Green Ride 2.0, the model spoke on an array of issues including fitness, social media trolling, and issues pertaining to morality and ethics. Soman will complete a 1000 km journey from Mumbai to Bengaluru on a bicycle under Green Ride 2.0.
Soman also talked about the obscenity trial that he and others involved had to face for an advertisement made in 1995.
When asked about the controversy involving Deepika Padukone’s ‘saffron bikini’ in the song Besharam Rang from Pathaan, Soman said, “All have the liberty to express themselves and people have are at liberty to object. Some things that are seen as artistic and beautiful by someone can be seen as vulgar and obscene by others.”
“Finally, it all comes down to legality. Is it illegal for a citizen to do this? If not, then the person should be able to do that. People can express objection, but they can’t take the law into their own hands. Someone can’t say I don’t like this I am gonna break this theatre. That’s illegal,” Soman added.
Pathaan has run into a controversy after its first song, Besharam Rang, was released. The song, which has Deepika Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan, was criticised for being ‘provocative’.
He recounted the obscenity case he, his colleague Madhu Sapre, and the team that made the Tuff shoe advertisement which showed the two models caressing each other, while a python was wrapped around them and the shoes covering the bare essentials. “I had an (obscenity) case against me from 1995. It went on for 14 years. In such a thing, you have to go by what the law says,” he said.
The social service branch of the Mumbai police had filed a complaint against Soman, Sapre and others involved in the Tuff shoe ad. All eight accused, including the publishers and distributors of two magazines that featured the ad, were acquitted by a Mumbai court in 2009.
On social media trolling, he said, “There was a time when only a few people had a voice. Only the king and his people could speak and people did not like that. Today, anyone can express himself. We should be happy that everyone has a voice, Whether to listen or not to listen is your freedom”.