Within a mere thirty minutes of its release, the makers of the upcoming film “Baby” found themselves in an internet storm.
In this age of social media, anything outrageous is bound to cause havoc online, and that’s exactly what happened with this film’s provocative poster. To many people’s dismay, it was specifically designed to offend sentiments (Manobhavalu) of various individuals, including feminists.
The controversial poster features a man boldly displaying his middle finger while the female lead stands attached to it in a posed manner. Before long, netizens began referencing Samantha’s previous “regressive” tweet as they expressed their discontent with this new poster. People were taken aback by the fact that even movies like “Baby,” which are known for their cute love stories, would resort to such offensive imagery.
Although platforms like Netflix and other OTTs frequently showcase bold content and such posters are common there, Tollywood (the Telugu film industry) isn’t accustomed to these gestures and consequently faced severe backlash.
Disturbed by the negative responses, the team behind “Baby” swiftly removed and recalled the poster from their social media channels. However, within those short thirty minutes, the damage had already been done. The poster had been shared extensively across multiple accounts through tweets, messages on WhatsApp, and various other means. Now we must wait to see how the Baby team will handle this crisis going forward.