After Dileep’s ‘Bha Bha Ba’ courts fresh row; netizens want Mohanlal, Sreenivasan brothers to share responsibility for ‘sick joke’

Amidst a lukewarm response in theatres, the Dileep-starrer ‘Bha Bha Ba’ has become embroiled in a controversy. The first project of the Malayalam actor to hit screens after his acquittal in the actress's abduction and assault case, ‘Bha Bha Ba’ has a scene that takes a cruel dig at the survivor and the criminal case that rocked Kerala as a whole.

It is much worse than a poorly written "double-meaning joke"—a trademark component of Dileep movies in the past two decades—many people wrote on X.

FULL REPORT | Dileep's 'Bha Bha Ba' movie gets massive backlash for kidnapping, rape jokes; netizens are 'disgusted'

In the said scene in the Dhananjay Shankar directorial, a character casually says, “Annan (the Malayalam word for elder brother) kidnapped her and m***** her,” and later adds, “Relax bro, she is a cow.” Netizens pointed out that "the problem gets worse because the narration is backed by a visual: Dileep literally arriving in a vehicle to kidnap a woman."

"The intent feels impossible to ignore, and if that moment is even remotely meant as a wink towards a real-world case associated with Dileep, that isn’t satire; it’s deeply uncomfortable at best," the viral posts added. For the unversed, Dileep was accused of ordering his henchmen to kidnap the survivor, who was sexually assaulted in a moving car.

'Mohanlal and Sreenivasan brothers cannot remain silent'

The problematic scene reportedly involves Vineeth and Dhyan Sreenivasan, who need to be held accountable, some users said. Mohanlal and Gokulam Gopalan, who apologised for hurting the sentiments of a political party with L2: Empuraan, cannot remain mum now, another user said. "...responsibility should be shared by Mohanlal, every producer, editor, and other stakeholders who signed off on this scene. Mohanlal and Gokulam Gopalan apologised and voluntarily cut scenes from Empuraan because it hurt the sentiments of a political party. If you claim yourself to be #avalkkoppam, does this not hurt your sentiments towards her?" the user wrote.

'Bha Bha Ba' review: Good mass entertainer spoof, weak revenge story

"This is not a sick joke. This is inhumane. Ethically indefensible... You’d have to be stupendously idiotic to miss that this is used to—what’s the word for it?—no, not humour or a visual gag—retraumatise her, perhaps, for what she went through. That which has been established in court, for which punishment has been delivered, is poked at here. For what? Retraumatisation through recognition?" the post further read.

The presence of Mohanlal in the trailer of Bha Bha Ba and glimpses of his song with Dileep helped the film's pre-release sales on the opening day, and it is set to be the third biggest opening day of 2025 in Kerala, only behind L2: Empuraan and Coolie.

Dileep was acquitted in the 2017 actress assault case on 8 December 2025. The court held the first to sixth accused guilty on charges of gang rape and criminal conspiracy. Their bail has been cancelled following the verdict. Along with Dileep, who was listed as the eighth accused, Charly Thomas, Sanil Kumar, and G. Sharath—the seventh, ninth, and tenth accused—have also been exonerated in the case.

Mollywood actress abduction case

A prominent actress, who worked in Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu films, was abducted and allegedly molested in her car by a group of men for nearly two hours in Kochi on the night of 17 February 2017.

The accused were arrested soon after the incident, and police filed the first chargesheet in April 2017. Dileep was arrested on 10 July 2017, after the probe team found that the prime accused, Suni, had contacted him from jail. Dileep was granted bail on 3 October 2017.

In November 2017, police filed a supplementary chargesheet against seven more persons, including Dileep. Five of them were later discharged or turned approvers. The trial began in 2020 after the Kerala High Court dismissed a petition filed by Dileep seeking a CBI probe into the incident.

A total of 261 witnesses were examined during the trial, including several from the film industry. Many actor-witnesses turned hostile. The investigation officer alone was examined for 109 days. The court admitted 834 documents and two defence witnesses. Two key witnesses—former MLA PT Thomas and director Balachandra Kumar—died during the trial stage.

The prosecution claimed that Dileep had animosity towards the victim after she allegedly informed Manju Warrier, the actor’s first wife, about his affairs with another actor. It said Dileep hatched a conspiracy to harm the actress after they had an intense quarrel during the rehearsal of a stage event in 2016.