3 minutes of readingHyderabadFebruary 12, 2026 02:05 pm IST
“Only a madman can do what the legends fear,” director Geethu Mohandas wrote on X this week, sharing that the Toxic: a fairy tale for adults The trailer is approaching 100 million views on YouTube. The numbers confirm what everyone already knew: Yash’s appeal has not weakened since KGF: Chapter 2 dominated theaters in 2022.
But if you look beyond the view count, you’ll see something more complicated. The same images that drive those numbers have turned social media into a war zone over where Indian cinema should draw its lines.
The problem isn’t the action sequences or the production values. One particular scene from the tease that kept everyone talking is that of Yash’s character, Raya, having an intimate encounter inside a car next to a graveyard, while outside, someone places a bomb detonator under the vehicle. For some viewers, it’s bold filmmaking. For others, it crossed the line.
The objections kept coming. The Karnataka State Women’s Commission received a complaint from AAP state secretary Usha Mohan stating that women were being degraded and Kannada culture was also being dishonored in the trailer of Toxic. The National Christian Federation also joined the ranks of objectors and filed a complaint for religiously insensitive scenes in cinema and government authorities. The federation claims that the intimate scenes were filmed in front of images of St. Michael, who plays an important role in Christian theology.
Then someone found the old interview. In this video, aired as part of a talk show hosted by actor Ramesh Aravind, Yash confessed not to film scenes that he wouldn’t feel comfortable watching with his parents. The video immediately went viral and the case of hypocrisy began.
Online comments reflected a split, literally, down the middle: some defended Yash’s performance by pointing out that actors change, movies change, and Yash did what the role required, while others repeatedly asked, “Would you watch Toxic with your family?”
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What makes this particularly tricky is the timing. Toxic marks Yash’s first film since the massive success of KGF: Chapter 2 four years ago, and will be shot simultaneously in Kannada and English with a star-studded cast including Nayanthara, Kiara Advani, Huma Qureshi and Tara Sutaria.
The manufacturers have not yet responded to the complaints. Meanwhile, the view count continues to rise to reach 100 million, proving that controversy and curiosity make excellent trading partners. When Toxic opens on March 19, the real verdict will come from ticket sales and whether audiences think the filmmakers went too far or enough.