Bollywood Holocaust controversy: Bawaal film accused of ‘trivialising’ Jewish genocide and ‘demeaning’ victims

Bawaal, a Bollywoodfilm directed by Nitesh Tiwari, has been heavily criticised since its release on 21 July for its treatment of the Holocaust, referred to by many Jews as the Shoah (destruction). 

The Holocaust was the systematic murder of around six million Jewish men, women, and children across Europe by the Nazi state during the Second World War. At the height of the Nazi government’s extermination policy, thousands of Jews were murdered in gas chambers across Europe every day.

Millions were beaten to death, shot, or died from starvation, overwork, and illness which ran rampant in concentration camps. Some Jews, including young children, were killed in grim medical experiments. 

It is because of this history that Bawaal, which was licensed for streaming by Amazon Prime Video, has provoked a backlash from Jewish groups. 

The movie, which is a romantic drama, uses the Holocaust as a metaphor in a way that many see as tasteless, with one prominent Jewish NGO calling for the film to be removed from streaming.

What is Bawaal about?

Bawaal is a Hindi language romantic drama about Ajay, a narcissistic history teacher from a small town, played by Varun Dhawan, who falls in love with a beautiful woman, Nisha (Janhvi Kapoor), but wants to use her to enhance his own social position.

Ajay takes Nisha on a trip to Europe where the pair really fall for each other but also come to encounter problems within their relationship.

There are many references and flashback scenes to the Second World War throughout the film, contrasting the bloody warfare and crimes against humanity that took place to a rough patch in a relationship.

Why has Bawaal been accused of trivialising the Holocaust?

Bawaal has been accused of trivialising the Holocaust through dialogue which compares Nazi death camps with relationship issues.

The most controversial scene in the film is a fantasy sequence which sees Kapoor and Dhawan at Auschwitz and later trapped in a gas chamber, the device used to kill Jews on an industrial scale during the Holocaust.

The pair are inside the chamber with Jewish men from death camps - they are both clothed whilst the Jews are naked with shaved heads and are shown choking and screaming. 

Additionally, in the film’s trailer, Nisha says “We’re all a little bit like Hitler, aren’t we? We’re not happy with what we have. And we want what others have.”

In another scene in the film, she says: “Every relationship goes through their Auschwitz”.

The trailer also includes shots of Zyklon B, a cyanide-based pesticide, being poured into a gas chamber, and of Jews choking to death inside the chamber.

There are several mentions of Hitler throughout the film seemingly used to contrast the Second World War and the Holocaust with a romantic relationship - Ajay says: “We finally made it to Hitler’s city. And the real world war begins now.”

It is not the first time that Amazon has found itself the subject of controversy over the portrayal of the Holocaust. The streamer removed a scene from the anti-historical series Hunters, which showed Jews being killed in a game of human chess at a death camp, something that did not happen in real life.

The Auschwitz Memorial criticised the scene on Twitter, calling it 'dangerous foolishness and caricature'.

What have critics of Bawaal said?

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), named after a Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter, released a statement which read: “Auschwitz is not a metaphor. It is the quintessential example of Man’s capacity for Evil. 

“Nitesh Tiwari, trivializes and demeans the memory of 6 million murdered Jews and millions of others who suffered at the hands of Hitler’s genocidal regime.”

The statement continues: “Amazon Prime should stop monetizing Bawaal by immediately removing this banal trivialization of the suffering and systematic murder of millions of victims of the Nazi Holocaust.”

Amazon has not promoted Bawaal on its main Twitter accounts, but at the time of writing (Friday morning) the film is still available to stream on Amazon Prime. It is the only streaming platform to carry the film in the UK.

How has the cast of Bawaal responded to criticism?

The film’s director does not seem to agree with the criticism - Tiwari said if you look at films with a magnifying glass “you'll find problems with every piece of work created".

Ajay actor Dhawan tried to explain the use of the Holocaust imagery, suggesting that it shows his character is tone-deaf at the start of the film. 

Dhawan added: “Some people got triggered and sensitive about this but I don't understand where that sensitivity or the trigger goes when they watch an English film. They are allowed to do and show everything and you will find that in a correct way.”