After jeans, Yesudas now has issues with selfies

Touch me not

Legendary playback singer K J Yesudas has taken an unflattering stand on the culture of selfies, triggering criticism from some quarters for qualifying the global trend with his own definitions of “culture” and “grooming”.

Yesudas’s remarks which appeared in a celebrity quotes column in a Malayalam daily on Monday have also opened a predictably polarised social media debate on the privacy of public figures and what constitutes social manner.

The singer, while stating that he had no issues posing for photographs, said he was not comfortable with selfies which involved physical contact.

“Since the selfies have surfaced, they all want to take photographs while staying really close. I’ve told both men and women that I can’t pose for selfies when there is physical contact,” he said.

Yesudas’s take on women who request photographs with him has also added to the row. “Before the 1980s, girls didn’t come and ask if they could take photographs. There was a certain modesty and respectability (about their manner),” he said.

The 76-year-old icon said he was not “finding faults” but only stating facts.

Even those introduced by  their husbands and fathers used to maintain a distance. That’s not the case now, he said.

This is not the first time the Padma Bhushan-winning vocalist has run into criticism over his takes on culture.

In October 2014, he had stated that it was upsetting to see women “titillate” by wearing jeans.

“It’s disheartening to see women who wear jeans and cause trouble for others. We should stick to clothes that suit us... what has to be concealed has to be concealed,” he said while speaking at a public function here. He also reasoned that a woman’s beauty was in being “gentle” and not in being provocative.