Made in Heaven 2’s fifth episode directed by Neeraj Ghaywan has been a topic of discussion ever since it dropped last week. The episode deals with casteism, even in today’s time, and features Radhika Apte as Pallavi Menke, a Dalit author, who embraces her identity and stands up for her community. On Monday, journalist and author Yashica Dutt, whose book Coming Out as Dalit, a snapshot of what it means to be Dalit in India, took to Instagram to share how the episode ‘gave her chills’ and criticised Made in Heaven makers for showing ‘a version of her life on screen without permission or credit’. Also read: Internet reacts to Radhika Apte’s Dalit wedding episode in Made in Heaven
Yashica shared a clip of the scene from the series along with her statement on the episode that shows an inter-caste wedding. While she praised the makers for showing a Dalit-Buddhist wedding, calling the episode a ‘no less than a cinematic triumph’, she questioned the makers for not ‘duly acknowledging’ her contribution to the ‘central ideas’ shown in the episode.
Yashica Dutt on ‘seeing her likeness on screen’
She wrote in the caption alongside her long note, “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.”
In her note, Yashica wrote, “Before I came out as Dalit in 2016, there was no vocabulary to identify the process of revealing your Dalitness after hiding it for years and owning it with pride either. Today, in 2023, there is both. Dalit directors like Neeraj Ghaywan have revolutionised our cinematic language by showcasing unapologetic Dalits in Bollywood, a tradition that has an even longer history in Southern cinema.”
She further wrote, “The Heart Skipped a Beat, the fifth episode of Prime Video’s Made in Heaven is no less than a cinematic triumph, when it comes to showcasing what it truly looks like for a Dalit woman to take her power back in this casteist society.”
Yashica says her ideas were taken without permission
Sharing her reaction to the episode, Yashica wrote, “The scene where the Dalit author, who is from Columbia, has written a book about ‘coming out’ and talks about her grandmother ‘manually cleaning toilets’, asserts her selfhood with her life partner-to-be, gave me chills. It was surreal to see a version of my life on screen that was not, but yet was still me. But soon the heartbreak set in. They were my words, but my name was nowhere… The ideas I cultivated, that are my life’s work, that I continue to receive immense hate for just speaking, were taken without permission or credit.””
She then said the Made in Heaven episode was ‘stunning in its portrayal of a Dalit woman and her Buddhist inter-caste wedding’, adding it ‘unfortunately erased her contribution’ to it. Yashica further said that now since filmmakers are ‘showing more Dalits on screen’ they should ‘duly acknowledge those who contributed to creating those ideas’.
Request to made in Heaven makers
Yashica concluded by writing, “I request Neeraj Ghaywan, and the show creators Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti to formally acknowledge my life’s work and ideas that contributed to this episode, which is among the most-talked in the entire series, beyond a post on social media and within the show’s credits. So that the millions of viewers know its central ideas were not created out of ether, but out of the blood, sweat and a lifetime of tears of a Dalit woman that the world had decided to cast aside.”
About Made In Heaven
Created by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, the Prime Video show is an anthology series headlined by Karan Mehra and Sobhita Dhulipala, who play wedding planners. Theirs as well as their clients’ narratives play out against the backdrop of lavish and expensive Indian weddings. Apart from Neeraj Ghaywan, Zoya and Reema, the episodes are directed by Alankrita Shrivastava and Nitya Mehra.