Why are the women of Toxic fading from the conversation as Yash takes centre stage?

With Yash and Geetu Mohandas's Toxic now set for an August 26 release, promotional material increasingly revolves around Raya and Ticket. Is the absence of women deliberate?

In Short

• Initial character posters had sparked strong curiosity around Toxic's women
• The Tabahi music card renewed interest but revealed little beyond mood
• Recent teasers and posters have centred largely on Yash's characters

As Yash's Toxic gears up for its August 26 release, the film's world is only getting bigger. Every poster, teaser and update has amplified conversations around the gangster drama, with fans dissecting every frame and theory. Yet, amid all the excitement surrounding Toxic, one aspect of the film appears to be slipping into the background - its women.

From the outset, Toxic was marketed as a gangster film with a female gaze. Both Yash and director Geetu Mohandas have spoken about the story's emotional layers and its strong women characters. The film also boasts a formidable female ensemble featuring actors like Kiara Advani, Nayanthara, Huma Qureshi, Rukmini Vasanth and Tara Sutaria.

Which is why the current promotional strategy raises an intriguing question: Is the absence of women from the campaign deliberate?

When the women drove the conversation

To be fair, there was a time when conversations around Toxic's women were impossible to ignore. Before the film was postponed from its original March release date, the makers subtly began promotions by unveiling individual character posters of the women's ensemble. Every reveal sparked speculation and theories. Who were these women? How did they fit into Geetu Mohandas's gangster world? What kind of roles were they playing?

The excitement resurfaced when the Tabahi music card featuring Yash and Kiara Advani was unveiled in March. Once again, there was genuine anticipation surrounding the women characters and the dynamic they would bring to the film. But even then, while audiences expected a music video with more visuals, it ended up being just the song, accompanied by an image of Yash and Kiara Advani, hinting at devastation.

Raya and Ticket

But since then, the discourse has noticeably shifted.

Today, most conversations around Toxic revolve around two names: Raya and Ticket. The "Introducing Raya" teaser that dropped on Yash's birthday in January, the teaser that followed in February and the posters released since then, including the introductions of other prominent male characters, have increasingly placed the spotlight on the men, particularly Yash's two characters.

The recent poster announcing the new release date also featured Raya and Ticket and nobody else. The internet has been busy decoding their relationship, theorising about dual roles and debating what these characters mean for the larger narrative.

And perhaps that is only natural.

Yash is, after all, one of Indian cinema's biggest stars. Every look, dialogue and frame featuring him is bound to dominate online discourse. The anticipation surrounding his return to the big screen after KGF: Chapter 2 is so immense that it may simply be outweighing everything else.

At the same time, the promotional material itself appears to be steering audiences in that direction.

Is silence part of the strategy?

Apart from fleeting glimpses in the teasers, the women remain largely hidden. One frame shows a woman in a circus setting, while another hints at intimacy in a bedroom sequence. Audiences have speculated that these figures are Kiara Advani and Rukmini Vasanth, respectively. Yet, no faces have been revealed, and no meaningful insight has been offered into their characters.

Could this be entirely by design?

Perhaps Geetu Mohandas wants audiences to discover these women in theatres rather than through carefully curated promotional beats. Perhaps their introductions are being preserved because revealing too much would alter the viewing experience. It also raises another question: Was the trailer originally intended to reveal more before the postponement, only for the strategy to change after the release date shifted?

These are questions only the makers can answer. But they are also questions that perhaps deserve answers before the film's release.

The risk of keeping the mystery alive

But secrecy, however intriguing, comes with its own risks.

Characters need time to become talking points. The women of Toxic already had momentum. They generated curiosity, inspired theories and became subjects of discussion despite very little being revealed about them. Prolonged absence, however, risks shifting audience investment almost entirely towards Raya and Ticket.

Perhaps this is exactly what Geetu Mohandas wants. Perhaps the women of Toxic are meant to be discovered in theatres rather than through promotional material. Even if information about these characters is being kept under wraps, the excitement surrounding them needs to be protected and sustained. Because as August 26 approaches, one thing is hard to ignore: even as conversations around Toxic grow louder, discussions about its five women seem to be fading into the background.

And maybe that fading silence is the film's biggest mystery yet. Hopefully it is.

- Ends