Bollywood actress Sanya Malhotra has finally broken her silence on the backlash surrounding her 2025 film Mrs, a Hindi remake of The Great Indian Kitchen. While the film was praised by many for its unflinching portrayal of patriarchy within households, it was also attacked by some men’s rights organisations, particularly the Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), which branded the film “toxic.”
Now, Sanya has responded with clarity, asserting that the debate around cooking is misplaced. “Cooking is not a gender thing,” she said, stressing that the issue in the film was never about the act of cooking, but about control, lack of freedom, and suppression of individuality.
What Sanya Actually Said
At a recent event, the actress explained that her character Richa’s struggle was not about refusing to cook, but about being reduced only to cooking.
“The problem was not cooking. The problem was that she was not allowed to do anything apart from cooking. She was being controlled. She too had dreams and aspirations, but she was stopped from achieving them.”
She further added:
- Cooking is a life skill every human being should know to survive.
- Her character’s pain lay in not having choices, not in the act of cooking itself.
- The film was never intended to start a gender war but to tell Richa’s story of suffocation and resilience.
Why the Debate Got Ugly
After its release, Mrs triggered strong reactions. While women across the country related to Richa’s silent frustrations, a section of men dismissed it as an “attack on Indian families.” The trolling reduced the film’s message to a shallow question—“Why is she fussing over cooking for two people?”—which Sanya calls frustratingly simplistic.
Here’s the provocative truth: Mrs shook the comfort zone of patriarchy. When art forces society to confront its ugly truths, it often gets branded as “toxic.” The backlash says more about male fragility than the film itself.
The Gendered Politics of a Kitchen
Let’s face it—India’s kitchens have long been battlegrounds of gender roles. Sanya’s comments underline a deeper cultural truth: domestic labour remains invisible, undervalued, and overwhelmingly gendered. Men learning to cook is still seen as an exception, not the norm.
By calling out this mindset, Mrs didn’t just tell Richa’s story—it held up a mirror to countless households. And perhaps that’s why it stung.
Closing Note
As Sanya rightly put it, “This was never meant to start any war.” But wars don’t always begin with intention—they erupt when uncomfortable truths are spoken aloud. Mrs May may have been dismissed as “toxic” by some, but in reality, it was a story that made toxicity visible where it always existed—inside our homes.
By – Nikita