Kangana Ranaut spoke of how actresses are stereotyped in an old interview.
When Kangana Ranaut challenged the common perception of actresses: expected to be submissive, laugh at silly jokes, and be available at all hours.
In an old interview, back when she was promoting Simran in 2017, Kangana Ranaut had shared her thoughts on the ‘stereotype of an actress’, saying that people in Bollywood often assume there is something wrong with her because she refuses to entertain stupidity. Kangana Ranaut, during the interview with Rediff, has also said that she had challenged the ‘stereotype of an actress’, and hence people were ‘uncomfortable’ around her. She also spoke about how ‘actresses were falling for married men’ earlier, but they ‘don’t do that anymore’.
The actress, known to speak her mind, said that the common perception was that an actress was expected to be submissive, laugh at silly jokes, heed to calls anytime, even at odd hours, and readily comply with inappropriate advances. She had said, “So, when a girl comes along and challenges this, people get uncomfortable. They feel something is wrong with her because she doesn’t entertain any kind of stupidity. Yes, you make mistakes when you are young, fall for married men. But you don’t do that anymore; you take a strong stand. You become someone with a mind of your own and that starts khatkoing (wrangling) in people’s minds.”
Kangana also criticised the way women are portrayed in films, saying that their unique journeys and conflicts are often overlooked and that they are reduced to being mere romantic props for the hero. “They were arm candy, to show the romantic side of the hero for two minutes. Then, she would come back for a song, and in the climax, she would be back for the varmala. That was the role of the Indian heroine. But it is not that she, like the hero, did not have her own conflicts,” she said during the interview.
The actress will next be seen as former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in her directorial, Emergency.
