Actor Rani Mukerji says the makers of her upcoming film "Mardaani 2" have decided to scrap a promotional song for the film so as to protect the "sanctity" of the story that they are trying to present to the audiences.
The actor, who reprises her role of police officer Shivani Shivaji Roy in Gopi Puthran-directed sequel to 2014's "Mardaani", said she believed the song would have proved to be "counterproductive" to the film's core idea.
"Mardaani is an entertaining thriller but at its core, it is seeking to give a strong social message on the rise of violent crimes on women that are being committed by juveniles in our country.
"We wanted to protect the sanctity of our message and not do any marketing gimmicks like shoot a promotional song just to get more conversation and more eyeballs. We felt this would be counterproductive to what we wanted to achieve," Rani said in a statement.
The sequel will see Shivani, now Superintendent of Police, face a cold, merciless villain who has no empathy and "is pure evil". The movie aims to draw attention towards rape crimes committed by juveniles.
Rani said the song would have also "diluted the intent of the film." "When at one hand we are trying to deliver a powerful message, we couldn't have recorded and shot a music video because that would have diluted the intent of the film.
"We were ok to not fall into the trap of conventional beliefs and chose to stay away from all such routes of marketing to ensure that we preserve the authenticity of our film. This was of maximum priority for us and I'm glad that we stuck to our beliefs," she said.
Produced by Aditya Chopra, the film will hit the theatres on December 13.
