Women do not always get their due credit, and that’s the case even for art and cinema. For the longest time, women were portrayed only a certain way, with the same tropes. Despite the change in the narrative, there’s very little creativity and trust associated with actors or women in the crew. Vidya Balan and Sheeba Chaddha pointed out how women are perceived in the industry and even by the audiences.
During The Film Companion Actors’ Adda 2022, Anupama Chopra brought up how Hindi cinema didn’t do well this year. She added that someone pointed that it was due to the lack of ‘the hero energy’, which, like she said, is agitating. If anything, the same-old representation of actors and their masculinity is the problem, among other issues.
After coming across this opinion, Vidya Balan mentioned how a number of women-centric films did well, like Gangubai Kathiawadi. She further added that when such films make it big, people treat it as an exception, crediting it to the director or other male authority figures associated with the film. Sheeba Chaddha pointed out that if that’s not the case, they come up with excuses like “the woman portrayed a masculine energy”, which means that a film’s achievement comes down to the men associated with it. They didn’t shy away from telling the truth like it is, and that’s what we need in an environment which perceives women as inferiors or incompetent.
Like everywhere else, the film industry takes women for granted, or hardly trusts them with responsibility. When, in fact, some of the best stories have been told through women-centric films. Of course, women have to work harder for the same roles, recognition and even the same pay, for that matter, which is hardly acknowledged.
Watch the complete discussion here: