Mehta who cynically calls herself a "humanitarian filmmaker" worked with Sri Lankan war criminals in her last movie "Water". She met in 2010 with then President M. Rajapakse who months before ordered the mass killing of Tamils. https://twitter.com/varathas/status/1323562302134779904

When I published this article (2013) about Mehta's collaboration with a criminal regime, she answered with a dry "food for thought". Apparently, this wasn't enough food for thought for her to stop her "questionable" behaviour @ava https://www.himalmag.com/staging-fiction-rewriting-history/

She didn't want to listen to concerned groups who suffer the most from collaborations as this. She blocked me and other critics later. When the US sanctioned Sri Lankan state functionaries, Deepa Mehta was willing to work with them. None of this info was secret at the time. @ava

So for Mehta who so blatantly trampled upon Eelam Tamil demands, who metaphorically spat on our struggle for justice, equality and self-determination, to then come back and want to do a movie on Tamil oppression, promoting it as a movie about "minorities", that's disgusting.

Mehta's disregard for Tamils however also shows in how she turned this new @netflix movie, a Tamil family story, into a story that literally lacks Tamil actresses and actors. How is this ok? How is this diversity? Diverse for whom? Certainly not for Tamils. @ava

This isn't diversity or worth celebrating, @mindykaling. Mehta had a closed casting call, which led to the cast you see today. @ramakrishnannn, an actual Tamil actress, got her role in @neverhaveiever precisely because of Mindy's decision to do an open online casting call.

How is it that one @netflix show gets it so right, the other so wrong? @ava @mindykaling @ramakrishnannn Oh yeah, because Mehta doesn't give a shit. Her neoliberal "activism" is a charade that lures in western and westernised audiences and funders who celebrate her work.

We, the concerned group, are written out of history and job opportunities by projects as Mehta's and @ava's. This is a question of listening, being sensitive, empathetic. None of what Mehta was towards us. She was dismissive at best - and still is @netflix

Essentially, Mehta isn't seeing us and has no interest in other people seeing us. But we are seeing this and we are telling you, this isn't ok, this is racist, exploitive and deeply unethical. @ava @ramakrishnannn @netflix

And here's the thing. Eelam Tamils are displaced all over the world because of this country, this genocide by this regime that Mehta was willing to collaborate with. The largest Eelam Tamil diaspora is in Canada, in Toronto, Mehta's hometown.

For decades they have been protesting & raising awareness about the crimes committed against their community by this regime. For decades they struggled to rebuild their lives. Mehta very well knew and didn't care. She had ample opportunities to listen and learn. She chose not to