Hansal Mehta defends Ibrahim amid 'harsh' Nadaaniyan backlash and blames filmmakers

Hansal Mehta addresses the criticism of Nadaaniyan, stars Ibrahim and Khushi, and blames the filmmakers for casting unprepared and raw debutants.

Khushi Kapoor and Ibrahim Ali Khan’s Netflix film *Nadaaniyan* didn’t receive a nice response from the audience. The film also got a backlash through memes on social media, with people criticizing Ibrahim and Khushi for their performances. Filmmaker Hansal Mehta considered the criticism "harsh and unfair". Still, he blamed the filmmakers responsible for casting unprepared and raw debutants in the films.

During a recent interview with ETimes, Mehta said, "The kind of comments that people are passing are in terrible taste. I’m sure it must be traumatizing for the young people." The director reminded people that the parents of star kids also had "awkward beginnings." He added, "It’s just that they were not so much in the public eye then, as people are now, due to social media."

While emphasizing the "lack of basic manners in the way people have reacted to the debut," Hansal Mehta also pointed out the shortcomings of directors and producers who commission films with star kids. "You cannot just assume that somebody will be good because they come from a certain lineage. So, in that sense, it is even unfair to launch them by giving them a false sense of entitlement. That entitlement should come from, I think, preparedness," Mehta explained.

He recounted, "I had approached one of these children for a film. And it was a slightly unusual film for a newcomer. But the people around them, their advisors, felt that he/she should be doing something conventional, that they should be making a high-speed entry, they should have all these ‘hit’ songs, they should get the same ‘mounting’ that, say, Kumar Gaurav, Sunny Deol, Hrithik Roshan, or Tiger Shroff got. The problem is that they have advisors who are not living in the times that we are in."

Advising young stars to focus on earning respect for their work instead of signing a film with a big production house, Hansal Mehta concluded, "My only plea to them is to keep their head down, focus on their work. The moment they perform well in something, no matter how well or badly it does at the box office, they will be respected. Their first target should be to get respect for their work."

Nadaaniyan marked the Bollywood debut of Ibrahim Ali Khan the son of Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh.

READ HERE: Nadaaniyan Actor Ibrahim Ali Khan Enters Digital Battle, Threatens Pakistani Critic with a Brutal Comeback!