‘WE SHOULD STOP USING THE TERM WOMEN CENTRIC’
Sonakshi Sinha on her film choices and why it’s necessary for actors to be balanced about success and failure
Her last couple of films may not have managed to hit the bull’s eye at the box-office, but Sonakshi Sinha is far from jittery. Her next film, Mudassar Aziz’s Happy Phir Bhag Jayegi releases this week and Sonakshi is in high spirits as she has gotten a chance to test her comic timing. “Comedy is a genre that I have always enjoyed. Most of my films, though they might have not been all out comedies; they had certain elements of comedy. My roles have been comic to a certain extent but I am really happy that I got to play this role. It was a wonderful experience,” she says.
While she has been part of films that were commercial blockbusters, Sonakshi says that it is essential for the audiences to love and appreciate your work. “It is important to have commercial success because everyone who is associated with the film never wants their film to not do well at the box-office. But that is not the deciding factor on where your life goes. It’s important for people to appreciate your work. For instance, Lootera (2013) was possibly my lowest earning film, but the kind of love I received for it just annuls the fact that the film did not do well at the box-office,” she says.
Considering she played strong parts in films like Noor (2017) and Akira (2016) and now, Happy Phir Bhaag Jayegi, we ask if she thinks the kind of roles being offered to women have undergone a sea change? “Absolutely. I think that shows with the kind of films that are releasing and it’s very evident. It isn’t something that needs to be said. But I also feel like now we should stop using this term women centric. We should just do away with it. When a hero is headlining a film, nobody says it’s a male centric film. As a global conversation now, we are all trying to achieve equality; we should treat the film like a film and not look at whether the protagonist is a male or a female. That shouldn’t really matter. A good film is a good film,” she argues.
For someone who has seen a lot of hits and misses in her career, Sonakshi comes across as a positive person, without any regrets. This attitude, she says, has been inculcated in her by her parents, actors Shatrughan Sinha and Poonam Sinha. “My approach to life is positive. My parents have taught me to treat success and failure in the same breath. You don’t differentiate between them so that has really helped me. Also, by the time you finish work on the movie, the film releases and the box office results are out, you have already moved on to your next, so that definitely helps. Also, as actors, I don’t think we can dwell on our failures and rejoice on our success beyond a certain point as it will affect your work.”