Year ender 2023: Animal, Bawaal, Adipurush - Indian films that courted controversy this year

The year 2023 was a rather successful chapter when it comes to considering the financial gains made at the Indian box office from the perspective of the business of cinema. However, there were a few theatrical releases that ran into palpable controversy despite managing to rake in strong numbers. Here is, a round up of major releases this year, which courted controversy.

Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway

Rani Mukerji returned to the silver screen this year with her emotional drama, Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway, which released in theatres on March 17. Inspired by the ordeal of former Indian expat Sagarika Chakraborty, who fought the legal system of Norway to regain custody of her two children from the state, the film was not well received by the Norwegian ambassador to India, Hans Jacob Frydenlund.

Frydenlund also published an op-ed piece calling the film riddled with "factual inaccuracies".

Adipurush

Om Raut's magnum opus, Adipurush, which released on June 16 this year, found itself in the midst of controversy on several counts. The first cut of the trailer being poorly received was the least of the Prabhas film's hurdles.

Post its release, Adipurush - officially inspired by the tale of Ramayana, the film came under severe flak for the heightened colloquial dialogues and attire which many audiences found disrespectful.

Bawaal

OTT release Bawaal, starring Janhvi Kapoor and Varun Dhawan, released on Amazon Prime Video, July 21. The film was presented as a complex poignant love story wherein a young, married couple tries to maneuver their relationship. However, the cincher in the entire film became a line spoken by Kapoor's Nisha which stated how every marriage goes through its own Auschwitz.

The comparison received immense criticism online, with the Israeli embassy issuing a statement which painted them as being "disturbed by the trivialisation of Holocaust".

Jailer

Rajinikanth's Jailer was undoubtedly one of the biggest box office successes this year when it came to the ambit of Indian cinema, with the film having minted upwards of ₹600 crores worldwide. However, this did not come without controversy. Even as the film hit theatres on August 10, it was courting controversy in terms of a legal battle the film's makers found themselves involved in.

The plaintiff in question was director Sakkir Madathil who helmed Malayalam film, also titled Jailer, demanding that Sun Pictures change the Rajinikanth starrer's title.

Oh My God 2

The Akshay Kumar led Oh My God 2 released alongside Sunny Deol's Gadar 2, with the latter going on to become the third-highest grossing film of the year. Though Oh My God 2 managed to pull up its numbers over time with good word of mouth, the film courted massive controversy with the 35 cuts demanded by the censor board coupled with a complete contextual change of Akshay Kumar's character in the film.

Not just this, the uncensored version of the film is what was released on streaming platform Netflix, something director Amit Rai had heavily objected to.

Animal

December 1 saw Sandeep Reddy Vanga return to the movies with his latest offering - the Ranbir Kapoor led Animal. While the film continues to mint big money at the box office, there comes no respite for the film when it comes to critiquing the heavy themes of misogyny and glorification of violence and toxic machismo. 

As a matter of fact, besides the A certification received from the CBFC, the film also received an 18 certification from the BBFC which also graded it a full 5 points when it came to violence. Animal has only just began its theatrical run.