Reacting to criticism over naming his seven-year-old protagonist Sexy in Cheeni Kum, director R Balakrishnan says there is nothing objectionable in it. "Who are these people and what do they find so objectionable in a little girl being called Sexy? It's like any little girl dressing up in her mother's sari and lipstick, posing before a mirror and trying to be 'sexy' without knowing what the word means. Why such a hue and cry over an innocent name!" Balki, as he is popularly known, told IANS.

The rather precocious and sassy friendship that child actor Swini Khara shares with Amitabh Bachchan in the film has also come in for furious flak. Swini's father has been quoted as saying that a better name than Sexy could have been given to his daughter.

"He didn't seem to mind when we shot the film. I don't know why anyone should object when the censor board had no objections. Cheeni Kum has family audiences coming in droves. I don't know of any parent or child feeling uncomfortable with Swini being named Sexy.

"Though some sociologist in one of the articles is quoted as saying it's dangerous, I don't see anyone getting anxious because Bachchan calls the kid Sexy. Dirty or clean, it's all in the viewers' minds. Really, I'm struck speechless after this unnecessary controversy."

"If we film-makers are muzzled and muffled for a harmless name given to a child with no ulterior motives, then we might as well go back to the times when the hero was named Rama and the villain Ravan. And if the heroine had twins they had to be Luv and Kush," he added.