June 8, 2025: Housefull 5, featuring a star-studded cast including Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Abhishek Bachchan, Nargis Fakhri, Jacqueline Fernandez, and debutante Soundarya Sharma, hit theaters on Friday with a strong opening day collection of Rs. 24 crore. Despite the box office success, the film has largely received negative reviews from critics and audiences alike.
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A major point of contention among viewers on social media is the heavy objectification of women in the film. Several netizens have expressed their disappointment and disgust at how female characters, especially Soundarya Sharma, were portrayed.
One user tweeted, “Let’s be real for a moment: all of the women were heavily objectified sexually. None of them had anything else to do in this movie other than being eye candy and catering solely to the male gaze. I still feel so disgusted.”
Another wrote, “The storyline was messy, but the worst thing was the objectification of the actresses. Especially of Soundarya Sharma. Worst movie of the Housefull franchise.”
A third user criticized specific scenes, saying, “The most cheap thing about Housefull 5 is how they treated their female leads — the air duct crawling sequence, the intros, and especially the debutante Soundarya, who was kept just to be sexualized throughout the movie.”
Despite the backlash, the film’s commercial performance remains strong on its opening day. However, many viewers are urging filmmakers to rethink the portrayal of women in future projects.