Ayushmann is against boxes for directors

Almost every Friday nowadays is packed with multiple releases. But the month of August stands out, with close to 10 big-ticket films ready to hit the theatres, including Ashwiny Iyer Tiwaridirected Bareilly Ki Barfi. Is lead actor Ayushmann Khurrana worried about the excessive competition? “If the producers have chosen August 18 as the release date, there must be a thought behind it,” he says.

“Our film is completely different as far as the genre is concerned vis-à-vis the other films releasing on the same day,” he adds. “May both the films do well, including Shradhha Kapoor’s next [film].”

Bareilly Ki Barfi will also see Ayushmann team up with a woman director, Ashwiny, for the second time (after Nupur Asthana in Bewakoofiyaan, 2014). Is there a difference between working with a male director and a female one? “I don’t think so. We shouldn’t typecast female directors just because they’re supposedly better with emotions or because we think they can’t do action films etc. I only believe that they’re directors and [are] good at their job,” replies the actor-singer. Categorising directors as male or female will be “stereotyping a gender.”

“You just can’t do that,” he says emphatically. “Every person — regardless of their gender — is different. I think we’ve made our own rules that women should do this or men should be like this. That’s not the case at all.”

We shouldn’t typecast just because female directors are supposedly better with emotions or because we think they can’t do action films AYUSHMANN KHURRANA, ACTOR

PHOTO: AMAL KS/HT

PHOTO: PRODIP GUHA/HT