The actress plays an Air Force pilot in Siddharth Anand’s aerial drama and one still from the teaser shows her in a bikini for which she has been unfairly called out

Deepika Padukone’s meteoric rise post Cocktail in 2012 is something not too many actors have seen or experienced in their careers. She has dabbled with diverse roles and genres in the last decade, convincingly pulling off Piku, Tamasha, Padmaavat, Chennai Express, and most recently, Pathaan and Jawan.

January 2023 began on a humongous note with the arrival of Shah Rukh Khan and Padukone’s Pathaan, which was the former’s return to the big screen after half a decade. When the song Besharam Rang dropped, heartbeats dropped too and so did the tolerance level of certain social media users and supposed gatekeepers of society. Protests on her saffron bikini erupted on the streets and it was complete chaos and mayhem. No context was seen, only cacophony was heard.

History has repeated itself as the actress, who has teamed up again with the same director Siddharth Anand for Fighterthat also stars Anil Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan, is under ire again. This time, the bikini is black so mercifully, color is not the issue. Padukone plays an Air Force pilot and that seems to have irked users who are questioning the portrayal of a character supposed to be patriotic and pious.

Going by the template Anand follows in his films, it’s all about mixing action with style, sass, sensuality, and some doses of emotion and nationalism; read Bang Bang, Pathaan, and now Fighter. He loves to excite and titillate, and seems to have provoked too with his last two offerings. This shall only help this drama the way it did Pathaan. And why shouldn’t Deepika wear a bikini? It’s a Republic Day release and she’s a fighter, but as some users pointed out, she has a life of her own, and what else to wear on a beach!