‘More men should empower women’
From Nil Battey Sannata (2016) to Bareilly Ki Barfi, director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari ties together stories with strong female characters.
She is married to director Nitesh Tiwari, who told the story of two girls who fight stereotypes to become wrestlers in Dangal (2016).
Ashwiny says it is time for men to stand up for empowering women, both on and off screen.
“We are in the best phase in Bollywood with so many films on women empowerment. There are so many films in which women have strong characters,” Ashwiny said on the sidelines of the recently concluded 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
“(We projected) Women as heroes as early as 1911... There were so many female (oriented) films and then came male (oriented) films... So it (female-oriented films) died down, but it has come back again,” said Ashwiny.
She pointed out how Indian history itself is full of strong women.
“We had women heroes in history, a woman Prime Minister, and so many women who have been an important part for generations. But we have never talked about it. If women were not so important, we would not have sects where women take care of the family... It was always there. But somewhere it got subdued,” she added.
“We need to encourage more men to empower women. It has to start from them. It has to start from my son, with me telling him not to bully his sister,” said the 38-year-old, who has two children with Nitesh.