Toxic Director To Trolls: "Chilling While People Figure Out Female Pleasure"

On Yash's 40th birthday, the makers unveiled the much-awaited teaser-trailer of his upcoming film, Toxic. Ever since the teaser dropped, it has become the talk of the town. The internet is abuzz with one particular car scene, which shows Yash's character having sex with a woman next to a cemetery.

A section of the Internet attacked the director over the objectification of women. Meanwhile, another section pointed out that the debate isn't about "female pleasure" or "objectification" but the relevance of the scene in the teaser.

Geetu Mohandas's Instagram Story vs. Reddit Reactions

Addressing the trolls, director Geetu Mohandas shared a cryptic note on her Instagram Stories: "Chilling while people figure out female pleasure, consent, women playing systems, etc., etc."

Insta story of Toxic director Geetu Mohandas
byu/SmallAchiever inBollyBlindsNGossip

The post has already gone viral on Reddit, inviting varied opinions.

One user wrote: "She's deflecting. The criticism she's getting has nothing to do with female pleasure or consent or anything related. She knows that as well. Like you said, the criticism is because of how useless the scene is, how it's used, and how tacky it is to use it like that."

Another commented: "It should be [noted that] Animal passed without much consequence with a good box office run, which gave directors the confidence and idea that toxic hyper-masculinity would sell. They don't really care about the effect it would have on society or downplaying the fight for feminism. Movies like these are just pulling society backwards in this toxic era of patriarchy."

"How does female pleasure come into context here? The character in the teaser seemed like some bar dancer who's picked up by Yash's character, f*cked once, and then discarded—and probably a lot of other women like that because of whatever issues he'll have. So that didn't exactly seem like a progressive representation of women," read another comment.

Ram Gopal Varma's Tweet on Geetu Mohandas

Praising the bold portrayal of sexual fantasy, director Ram Gopal Varma wrote on X: "After seeing the @TheNameIsYash starring trailer of #Toxic I have no doubt that @GeethuMohandas is the ultimate symbol of Women Empowerment ..No Male director is Man enough in comparison to this Woman .. I still can't believe she shot this."

After seeing the @TheNameIsYash starring trailer of #Toxic I have no doubt that @GeethuMohandas_ is the ultimate symbol of Women Empowerment ..No Male director is Man enough in comparison to this Woman .. I still can't believe she shot this 👇🏻 😳 https://t.co/ZxyxU8Da40 pic.twitter.com/qzFUcv9JIb

— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) January 8, 2026

About Toxic

Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups is produced by Venkat K. Narayana and Yash under KVN Productions and Monster Mind Creations. Written and shot in Kannada and English, it will have dubbed versions in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam.

Directed by Geetu Mohandas, the film boasts a stellar cast including Nayanthara, Huma Qureshi, Kiara Advani, Tara Sutaria, and Rukmini Vasanth.

It is reportedly a gripping tale of crime and deception set in 1980s Goa, where a powerful drug cartel manipulates lives behind the state's picture-perfect beaches.