More often than not women are represented in weak and cliché roles. Few women are able to break free of this restrain and embrace bolder roles.
Apart from exceptions like Lootera and Akira, actor Sonakshi Sinha has largely been criticised for her choice of roles – regressive and of course repetitive. While the Bollywood star has defended her choices a lot of times, on Friday evening, she candidly admitted that she has indeed realised that her critics were right that she should be doing more substantial and empowered characters.
To justify the change in her choice of roles, Sonakshi also cited the examples of her last three projects, Akira, Force 2 and Noor, where her characters had enough meat and were as strong (or maybe impactful in case of Akira and Noor) as her male counterparts. She made the admission at US Consulate General, Mumbai’s Women’s Safety and Empowerment Short-Film Contest and Awards.
“I was accused of doing a lot of roles in my film that were regressive. The fingers were always pointing at me. Nobody pulled up the writer, who wrote the film and the role. Nobody pulled up the director, who made the film. It was always me. I would always be on the defensive side, saying, ‘Why are people saying this to me.’ I am just an actor doing my job. But then I realized that you know what, maybe they are right. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing what I am doing. And maybe I should be doing something that doesn’t portray me as a damsel in distress which is when I started doing films like Akira where I played a martial artist who was able to take care of herself.
“I did a film called Force 2 where I played a RAW agent. I did a film called Noor where I played a very modern working woman. And honestly, all these roles empowered me in some way or the other. Girls today come to me and say that I was able to learn self defense when I did Akira because I actually trained for it. I feel self defense should be incorporated in our syllabus today. Not only here but all around the world where girls are able to make themselves so strong, that they can protect themselves,” said Sonakshi, who was the opening speaker for the evening.
Sharing her thoughts on gender-based violence against women, the actor said that she wants to be a part of a world where women’s safety is a given, not a cause she and others have to fight for.
“I want to be live in a world where we as women are able to choose. We have been playing the waiting game for the longest time. Women are always waiting to be protected, rescued, permission, validation, acceptance and approval. We live in a country where we worship Goddesses Laxmi, Saraswati, Kali and Durga but we eliminate the girl child before she sees the world. I don’t want to live in a world like that and honestly, an initiative to end gender based violence is a commendable effort.”
The evening was also attended by actor Sarah-Jane Dias and filmmaker Alankrita Srivastava, both of whom were the jury members of the film festival.
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