What makes movies Dangerous?

Ashwani Kashyap popularly known as ‘Johnny Dada’ and ‘Tiktok villian’ attempted three murders within four days. Investigators believe that he loved a girl since his childhood who was then working as an air hostess in Dubai. Rejection from the girl is believed to be the root cause behind the killings. This wasn’t really surprising because he regularly posted extreme messages over various social media platforms. One of those messages “jo mera nhi ho sakta mai usse kisi aur ka mauka nhi dunga” which is a dialogue from the movie ‘Kabir Singh’.

So can movies really motivate someone for criminal activities, and if so should such movies be banned?

‘Kabir Singh’ is the Hindi remake of a Telegu movie ‘Arjun Reddy’. The movie fell into a controversy due to the way the main character of the movie was being glorified. The main character of the movie played by Shahid Kapoor attempts sexual violence several times in the movie and all such activities were being justified because the character was a brilliant doctor. Critics believe that the problem wasn’t that sexual harassment scenes were shown but that such behavior was never condemned. The movie did well at box office earning about three hundred crores.

But ‘Kabir Singh’ wasn’t the only movie stuck in controversies. ‘Joker’ has also been a box office hit. On one hand it received standing ovation at major film festivals such as Venice Premiere while on the other hand people wanted it to be banned. The main character in this movie is an average looking person who’s publicly humiliated, misbehaved by his co-workers, loses his job and as a consequence his mental health. The only instant when the character receives support and attention is when he attempts a murder on live television and thereafter he’s treated like a hero in the movie. In the past years US faced a huge number of mass shootings and this was the reason people were afraid that the movie could motivate other such mentally unstable people who wish to gain attention through violence for mass shootings. Especially when in many scenes, the film-makers attempt to ask viewers to sympathize with the Joker. And this fear is not surprising, given America’s history of mass shooting.

Defending the movies

Movies only depict real life and don’t influence the behavior.
What about other movies?

These are the most common arguments presented by the makers to defend their movies.

Makers of ‘Joker’ asked why there were no such controversies about movies like ‘John Wick 3’ which showed much more of murders and violent scenes. While Shahid Kapoor asked why there were no controversies about movies like ‘Baazigar’ where the character played by Shahrukh Khan murders the main female character of the movie, or the scene from the movie ‘Sanju’ where the main character Sanju puts a toilet seat round the neck of Ruby.

One reason could be because other movies like ‘Baazigar’ and ‘Sanju’ did not show as many anti-women scenes as there were in ‘Kabir Singh’. But the comparison of ‘John Wick 3’ did seem valid to some extent. The answer could be that more people can identify themselves with the main character of ‘Joker’ while it’s not the case with other movies like ‘John Wick 3’ or ‘Fast and Furious’. The stunts, weapons, looks etc. of characters of other action movies are not much relatable to the mass while the looks, problems, life and world of Joker is relatable for the ordinary people.

Research studies on whether movies and media has impact on human behavior have mixed conclusions. It isn’t clear which movies impact behavior in what ways but media does have some impact on daily life and thus behavior hence makers can’t say confidently that their work doesn’t influence behavior at all. Research studies broadly suggest that violence in movies doesn’t have much impact on real life while sexual violence in movies does have some influence. One possible reason of such conclusion might be that violence is attempted against the villian and for each story the villian keeps changing whereas in case of sexual violence, almost always women are the victim.

Solutions

Banning such controversial media is not a solution as this violates the freedom of expression.

Certification also helps but not to a great extent.

One such solution being discussed is if a message is shown in the beginning or at the end of such movies where the directors or actors convey clearly that such behavior is not being promoted and should not be justified may have a good impact.

It is hard to tell if people like Ashwani Kashyap would have dropped their plans of murder due to such a warning but there’s no harm to at least try such solutions.