After crass poster, Vijay Sethupathi to stop releasing first looks?

On Thursday, many walls across Chennai had a bunch of posters put up with wordings that many felt were downright crass. The

poster

, which had a black background, only had the text ------- poda oru ponnu venum (see pic). The double entendre in the line was sexist and objectified women, cried its critics.

It was later releaved that the poster was part of a promotional campaign for an upcoming film titled 'Kadala Poda Oru Ponnu Venum', to be directed by newcomer

Sivakarthik

, a former assistant of Samuthirakani and CJ Bhaskar among others. The film will feature TV anchor Azhar and Manisha in the lead roles.

Interestingly, the

first look

of the film was released today by Vijay Sethupathi, and critics of the poster pounced upon the actor, asking him how he could endorse a film that had resorted to such an act.

Responding to this

controversy

, Vijay Sethupathi has now clarifies, "The director worked with me on the TV serial 'Penn'. He had started a couple of films, but they did not go beyond the puja stage. He told that he had begun a third one, and asked me if I could release his first look poster. I agreed as I felt that could help him. But I did not know that they would be putting up such posters. Upon learning of such an act, I called him up and scolded him. This has made me think that I should stop launching these first look posters. The things that a few do for business reasons end up hurting many. It is something we should be ashamed of. People who do such things exist. They will continue to exist."