Actress Vidya Balan makes a statement expressing that she feels nowadays people in India are feeling worried that their wives, daughters, and mother are standing up and challenging their status quotient. She also slid in a snide remark at male actors saying that they shut their mouths on relevant issues in the country whereas female actors are more vocal.
While interacting with students at her alma mater St. Xavier’s College, the Kahaani actress said, “I think female actors have been more vocal in a lot of ways and male actors don’t open their mouths at all, which is why we are told why don’t you stick to what you are doing. There have been threats issued. That’s only because we (females) are threatening their status quo.”
She further added, “People are worried and I am not saying that just men are worried that tomorrow, their daughters, sisters, mothers, wives, girlfriends or friends are going to stand up and question what is happening around them, and that is where it comes from. It comes from that deep-seated fear that their status quo is being challenged. I think whoever wants to express should be able to express.”
Vidya also said that in the same way, she will say that peaceful protests are our constitutional right so as long as we are not being violent, we should be able to say whatever we want to say and she thinks everyone in the country should go through our constitution to know about our rights and responsibilities.
On the work front, Vidya Balan will be working with a female director for the first time in her upcoming film Shakuntala Devi. When quizzed about her work experience with a female director, Vidya said, “Yes it is. I have just had my first experience. I have done a film which tells a story of mathematician and the human-computer named Shankutala Devi, which I also shot in St. Xavier’s College. It has been written and directed by Anu Menon So, it’s my first experience with a female director.”
She then said that she doesn’t want to make gender generalization, as she thinks experience and perspective of men and women tend to differ. She believes that is some kind of gender equalizer and she is eager to see that happening across the board.
Vidya then said, “Now, we have more women writers, directors and technicians in films and I feel the women’s perspective are a little more nuanced, which is why probably they are finding more opportunity on the digital platforms because it allows you to have a more nuanced narrative. In films, we keep it is simplistic and that’s why it makes all the difference.”