‘Pani’ director Joju George who received backlash for threatening a Facebook reviewer over phone took to Instagram to ‘clear the air’ regarding the incident. The actor admitted to making the phone call but claimed he was provoked by the reviewer’s words against his film 'Pani' on Facebook. He alleged that the reviewer Adarsh was deliberately trying to degrade the film by spreading the same review across various platforms.
He also claimed that the reviewer had asked people not to watch the movie. “There is a lot of hard work behind making the film a success. I am not against freedom of speech. Reviewers have the right to share their opinions about the film. There has also been a lot of degrading, but I never called anyone else. However, in this particular case, I noticed that the reviewer had shared the spoiler of the film and also shared the same review across various platforms in deliberate attempts to degrade my movie. I have told you in the past and I am telling you now – Life has never been easy for me. I have faced several struggles to reach where I am today. ‘Pani’ is the fruit of a two-year struggle, involving so many people. I invested a lot of money on the film and I don’t want that to go to waste just because of some person’s attempt to degrade it purposefully. I will move legally against him,” he said.
The film reviewer, who is a research student, had shared a voice clip of the conversation between him and Joju George on a social media platform. In the voice clip, Joju is heard threatening and mocking him, while the reviewer, who identified himself as Adarsh, held his own. Many people have come out in support of the reviewer, criticising Joju’s intolerance to negative reviews about his film.