The actor says now women are portrayed as persons with dreams, desires, fears and hopes
The actor says now women are portrayed as persons with dreams, desires, fears and hopes
Now how would you describe the changes in the way women are written in Indian films/TV?
The portrayal of women has changed a lot in the past decade, and it’s heartening. You no longer aspire to be any one type of woman. You are allowed to be yourself in the world. We are fighting for it every day and you can see it on screen too.
Would you say that OTT releases, where box office numbers are not included, have made it easier to finance women-led projects?
I think it would be unfair to say that. While I certainly feel that the OTT space has accelerated progress in this regard, I do feel that women-led films are gradually doing better at the box office as well. And while trade pundits would love to believe that women-led films have a better chance at OTT than at the box office, I think we have to remember that trade pundits are mostly men.
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Jokes apart, I think it is very difficult at this point of time to predict how a film will fare. Things have changed a lot now, and the horizon for women’s stories has widened. What is emerging very clearly is that visual spectacle movies are doing extremely well in theatres. More intimate or personal stories are doing better on OTT. But it has nothing to do with gender.
Vidya Balan in ‘Lioness’
What kind of characters attract you at this stage of your career?
I don’t know what kind of film I will like as I look forward to surprise and challenge to do something that I never imagined. Sometimes, the simplest ideas attract me, sometimes, brilliant ideas captivate me. So, I can’t really tell for sure.
If you could meet Vidya Balan from the ‘Hum Paanch’ era today, what advice would you give her?
All I will say is that no one is born knowing everything. So, if you feel like you just don’t know enough, that’s totally fine. You will learn along the way. And you’ll learn, and you’ll regret and you’ll get better. And you are absolutely fine just as you are.