Prime Video’s Made In Heaven Season 2 is all the rage on the platform at present. Indian viewers are flocking to the platform in droves to catch the latest season of the decidedly pathbreaking show on Indian OTT. Made In Heaven Season 2 has garnered equal, if not more, appreciation as its debut season. The various social issues Made In Heaven Season 2 showcases has found favour with viewers, and sparked debates and chatter on social media.
However, the biggest irony about Made In Heaven Season 2 is that a show as woke as this doesn’t believe in rising up to its own standards of wokeness.
Why do we say so?
Because of the controversy raging around one of its most talked-about episodes – Episode 5, titled ‘The Heart Skipped A Beat’ – the one that features a Dalit Buddhist wedding. For those who don’t know, the said episode has come under fire from Dalit writer Yashica Dutt, for using her work and her life story in the episode, without taking her consent or acknowledging her work in the credits of the episode. Yashica Dutt posted her disappointment about it on her official Instagram handle, saying,
“It’s been an overwhelming few days. Seeing my likeness on screen without warning or permission was a roller-coaster starting from thrill and excitement to sadness and loss.
I continue to support @neeraj.ghaywan’s excellent work, whether now with Made in Heaven or Geeli Pucchi before. But this needs to be addressed.
@zoieakhtar @reemakagti1 @amazonprime @primevideoin @madeinheaventv”.
In her Instagram post, Yashica Dutt also wrote, “It was surreal to see a version of my life on screen that wasn’t but yet was still me. But soon the heartbreak set in. They were my words but my name was nowhere. What could have been a celebration of our collective ideas was now tinged with sadness. The ideas I cultivated, that are my life’s work, that I continue to receive immense hate still for just speaking, were taken without permission or credit.”
Have a look at Yashica Dutt’s Instagram post –
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cv7vahpO0m5/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Made In Heaven Season 2 Episode 5, directed by Neeraj Ghaywan, features a Dalit woman (Radhika Apte), who stands up for her rights against her to-be husband’s snobbish relatives, and ensures a Dalit Buddhist wedding for the couple.
All those familiar with Yashica Dutt’s work, and her seminal book ‘Coming Out As Dalit: A Memoir’, will instantly know that Radhika Apte’s character, and the words she speaks in Made In Heaven Season 2 Episode 5, are all Yashica Dutt.
It’s quite ironical that a series that makes a great show of standing up for the cause of discriminated women thinks nothing of stealing the life work of a woman from a community that has traditionally faced horrific marginalisation by society.
Yashica Dutt herself acknowledges this succinctly in her Instagram post when she writes, “Dalits have a long history of being taken from, erased, ignored, obliterated from our own stories. Dalit women in particular are the easiest to take from, what’s the worth in the labor they’ve created anyway. It’s for everybody to claim. Except this time. I’m reclaiming my work, my worth and my contribution to the discourse and history, defying the order of what’s expected of me as a woman who is always supposed to fine tune the ‘register of her rage’.
Dear Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, Neeraj Ghaywan and Prime Video, how about coming true on the values you claim to espouse on your much-loved show, Made In Heaven?
It’s the least we can expect from you.
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