After the teaser of Yash’s film Toxic triggered strong reactions online, with a section of social media users calling it “vulgar” and “offensive”, actor Rima Kallingal has come out in support.

The criticism largely centred on the teaser’s opening sequence, which shows Yash’s character sharing an intimate moment with a woman in a car parked in a cemetery before a massive explosion. Soon after the teaser went viral, Geetu Mohandas began receiving online backlash over the portrayal of sexuality in the scene.

Rima Kallingal responded by sharing a post from an Instagram page (Stories of a Cinephile) titled “The Pleasure, The Morality Crisis, And The Women…”, which defended the teaser and questioned why outrage is often directed primarily at the woman in intimate scenes. The post argued that consentful passion is frequently misread as vulgarity, and that women are disproportionately judged when sexuality is depicted on screen.

Adding to that, Kallingal also shared a light-hearted reel of herself strolling casually in a white dress, captioned, "Chilling while people figure out female pleasure, consent, women playing systems, etc etc..”

Geetu Mohandas reposted the reel with the remark “Now I’ve said it,” indicating solidarity with the sentiment.

Mohandas further addressed the conversation around the teaser by identifying the actress seen in the controversial scene. Initially mistaken online for Hollywood actor Natalie Burn, the woman has now been revealed as Beatriz Bach. Sharing her picture, Mohandas wrote, “This beauty is my cemetery girl.”

The Instagram post Rima supported also pointed to earlier Malayalam films like Mayaanadhi and 4 Years, and recent works such as Dies Irae and All We Imagine as Light, noting a recurring pattern: women in intimate scenes are quickly labelled or judged, while their male co-stars often escape similar scrutiny. It questioned why the moral burden of sexuality is still overwhelmingly placed on women.