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Made in Heaven 2 actor Arjun Mathur: Nobody holds the responsibility to go about crediting every source of inspiration
Actor Arjun Mathur addresses controversy over credit for Made in Heaven 2 and also discusses the debate around LGBTQ+ actors not being cast in queer roles
Arjun Mathur’s Made in Heaven 2 received appreciation from all quarters after it’s release, however it soon came in the eye of the storm when Dalit writer Yashica Dutt accused the makers for not giving her due credit, despite using her book Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir as an inspiration for one of the episodes starring Radhika Apte. Now addressing the controversy, Mathur says, that taking away the credit from anyone was not the intention.
“As far as the credit goes, it’s never ever the intention of the filmmaker to disrespect anyone or take away the due credit from someone, but there are so many people who work on something like this, that sometimes things get lost in the translation,” he explains and goes on, “But nobody holds the responsibility to go about crediting every single source of inspiration, or talk about every thought that crosses the mind. If I saw a painting or read a book or heard a piece of music and that inspired me to write something, I can talk about it by choice but it’s not my responsibility to tell the world that this is what inspired me.”
Mathur explains how in the world, there are no original ideas and everything is an idea taken somewhere or the other. “Everything ...all our thoughts are inspired from something or someone. There is a saying that we as human beings are a sum total of 7-8 people surrounding us. That’s how it is,” he adds.
How does the controversy and negative conversation around the show affect him? “A little bit of bad taste enters the picture which is unnecessary and avoidable. But it does not takes away the effect the show intented to create. The episode is still extremely talked about. If there are 5 percent of the people saying ill about it or how can you do this...how can you do that, there are 95 per cent appreciating the efforts and telling that they found it amazing,” says the actor.
Mathur, who plays a gay wedding planner in the show, also touches upon the debate around LGBTQ+ actors being deprived of opportunities to play queer characters on-screen. “A filmmaker is going to cast an actor who is best for the part,” he says. “These (LGBTQ+) actors... have they gone out and trained? Have they worked on their skills? Because they will get cast on the basis of how good they and not because they are gay. And it’s not my responsibility as a straight person, to forgo an opportunity that has come to me,” explains the actor, who had previously played a homosexual character in films such as Migration (2007) and I Am (2010).
Mathur calls it the unnecessary noise that will be there, no matter what one does. “A lot of screaming can start now about why did Arjun Mathur play this part and why was it not offered to a gay character. I think that’s just the noise of the world. And that’s going to happen irrespective of what anyone does or says. That’s how the world is spinning. Anything good becomes bad. That’s what happened with our episode 5. And now, there are two Dalit people (Writers Yashica Dutt And Sumit Baudh Fight) fighting with each other. Now nobody is fighting with the makers. So these things do not mean people who are in the position to do good work should stop doing it. If I am given the opportunity to play the part and be a voice of the show, I will do it,” he ends
