Female actors are more vocal, says Vidya Balan
Actress Vidya Balan feels that nowadays people in India are feeling worried that their wives, daughters, mothers are standing up and challenging their status quo. She also took a jibe at male actors saying that they shut their mouths on relevant issues in the country whereas female actors are more vocal.
“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,” said Vidya.
She 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 is for the first time working with a female director in her upcoming film Shankutala Devi. Asked if it is different working with a female filmmaker, she said: “Yes it is. I have just had my first experience. I have done a film which tells the story of a mathematician and a human-computer named Shankutala Devi. It has been written and directed by Anu Menon So, it’s my first experience with a female director.”
She added, “I don’t want to make gender generalisation, but I think the experiences and perspectives of men and women tend to differ. So, I would like to call it some kind of an equaliser and I would like to see that happening across the board. Now, we have more women writers, directors and technicians in films and I feel the women’s perspective is a little more nuanced. In films, we keep it is simplistic and that’s why it makes all the difference.”