I’m unapologetic about my body and my sexuality: Swara Bhaskar
Actor Shabana Azmi (right) feels that the idea of marriage being detrimental to the careers of female actors, is rather conservative. “This is no longer the case. I do not agree that marriage is a disqualification,” said Shabana. The 66-year-old star said actors get married at an appropriate age now.
“What happens, is girls get married at an age when they are ready, by which time they have played their parts as leading ladies that are sort of in the heroine mode. By the time they get married, they look for more substantial roles and so the roles that come their way are appropriate to their age,” she added. Shabana, who through her work strongly supports the empowerment of women, says the role of women in Indian cinema has changed.
“If you look at the 1960s, you see Meena Kumari was the heroine for the film that was titled Main Chup Rahungi–– which means remaining silent was considered a virtue for women,” she said, adding how it was left to the parallel cinema to portray women differently.
“Owing to the weight that many of our female actors have brought to the films and their roles, more such films are being written, and importantly they are being commercially successful,” she said.
Actor Swara Bhaskar (left) says that her role as Anaarkali, a prostitute, in the film Anarkali of Arrah, was not challenging.
“Being unapologetic about my body, my sexuality, my life’s decisions is a political belief that as a feminist I strongly espouse. What was difficult for me and my real challenge was to preserve and express the fact that however feisty Anaarkali may seem, she is still vulnerable,” says Swara, adding, “Ultimately she is a woman, and a woman considered not worthy of societal respect in an obviously male-centric patriarchal world. So keeping that vulnerability of Anaarkali alive, was my real challenge.”
The actor says that the message of the film was that no matter what a woman does, or what her character is, sexual consent is always paramount. “I think our bravest move was to make Anaarkali actually characterless or loose from the point of view of a middle class morality. We offer no explanation, or justification for the fact that she may have casual sex––but on her own terms. That makes the whole question of consent totally non-negotiable. That is our greatest victory here.”