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MUMBAI: Deepika Padukone has come in for criticism for her role in the short film My Choice that stresses the freedom of feminist choices.
Directed by Homi Adajania and produced by JSW and Sangita Jinda as part of Vogue India’s initiative on social awareness, the short film features 99 women, including Deepika, Nimrat Kaur, and others who have made choices in life and careers.
In it Deepika says, ”I’ve always been allowed to be who I want to be. When you’re not caged, when you don’t succumb to expectation, that’s when you’re empowered.”
But many are viewing it the short film as vulgar promotion of adultery and cheating in the name of women empowerment.
Outspoken Sonam Kapoor says, “Elitist women have always had wrong ideas about feminism. They think male-bashing… hating men…makes you a true feminist. I don’t have to make a video to voice my opinions. My actions have always spoken louder than my words. I’m proud to be a woman and I respect my independence. I’m never afraid to give my opinion on any matter. That’s what feminism is about.”
Here is the script of My Choice:
My body, my mind, my choice
To wear the clothes I like; even if my spirit roams naked
My choice; to be a size 0 or a size 15
They don’t have a size for my spirit, and never will
To use cotton and silk to trap my soul is to believe that you can halt the expansion of the universe
Or capture sunlight in the palm of your hand
Your mind is caged, let it free
My body is not
Let it be
My choice
To marry, or not to marry
To have sex before marriage, to have sex out of marriage, or to not have sex
My choice
To love temporarily, or to lust forever
My choice
To love a man, or a woman, or both
Remember; you are my choice, I’m not your privilege
The bindi on my forehead, the ring on my finger, adding your surname to mine, they’re all ornaments and can be replaced
My love for you cannot, so treasure that
My choice; to come home when I want
Don’t be upset if I come home at 4am
Don’t be fooled if I come home at 6pm,
My choice; to have your baby or not
To pick you from 7 billion choices or not
So don’t get cocky
My pleasure might be your pain
My songs, your noise
My order, your anarchy
Your sins, my virtues
My choices are like my fingerprints
They make me unique
I am the tree of the forest
I am the snowflake not the snowfall
You are the snowflake
Wake up
Get out of the shit storm
I choose to empathise
Or to be indifferent
I choose to be different
I am the universe
Infinite in every direction
This is my choice.
