India, Jan. 5 -- O ver the past few years, the rise of toxic, hyper-aggressive male characters in Hindi cinema has sparked debate, especially after films like Animal (2023) and more recently Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat and Tere Ishq Mein (2025) found box-office success. Actor Radhika Apte, whose latest film Saali Mohabbat features her as a woman who murders her husband after discovering his infidelity, says such extreme acts should never be romanticised as gestures of love. "That's the problem," she says, adding, "What happens in the film isn't passionate love. It happens because of accumulated injustice and the way she has been treated. I don't like to glorify that as love. This is where we go wrong." She adds, "In our culture, these acts are mistaken as love. But it's not really love when we have to keep compromising our happiness to please somebody." Radhika says cinema often confuses control with passion. "Whether it's a husband, his family or even your parents, doing whatever they want you to do is not love. If someone expects you to sacrifice your happiness to obey them, that's not love. That's just power and control. And I'm sick of it being called love or respect." Calling on the industry to rethink the trend, she says, "It's awful. We are glorifying obsession and power as passion, and that's a big mistake."...