Recently Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) raised an important question in its talk show, ‘Is Bollywood Sexist?’. The discussion happened after the Tata Institute of Social Sciences released a report that stated that in most successful Hindi films, the story was driven by male characters and many hit movies portrayed women in a sexist manner.
In this new series, KiaGia.com will be asking various celebrities, media personalities and journalists about whether they, too, believe that Bollywood is sexist.
Since the ‘70s, Shabana Azmi has carved a niche for herself thanks to her powerful performances and essaying strong and bold characters. In several films, she single-handedly carried the narrative without much support from male leads.
From ‘Kadambari’ (1976), ‘Jallian Wala Bagh’ (1977), ‘Sparsh’ (1980), ‘Masoom’ (1983) to ‘Mrityudand’ (1997), ‘Godmother’ (1999), ’15 Park Avenue’ (2006), ‘Neerja’ (2016), etc., Shabana Azmi has mesmerised the audiences in every generation.
Her latest film, ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’, for instance, released this week and she has been loved in a supporting but crucial character as Rani’s (Alia Bhatt) grandmother.
Here’s what Shabana Azmi has to say on this topic:
“I think there is a big change happening in the Hindi film Industry. Earlier ‘Main Chup Rahungi’ (1962) was considered a virtue for the heroine. Today it is mercifully no longer so. In a mainstream film like Karan Johar’s ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’, Alia Bhatt’s character is a feisty young lady who will not break even a hint of patriarchal values.
I think filmmakers have realised that the stereotypical heroine of yore has served her day. This is a badly required change and we are all the happier for it.”
