The past week has been incredible for women in the movies. Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light bagged the Grand Prix, the second-most prestigious award at the Cannes Film Festival. Anasuya Sengupta became the first Indian female actor to win the Best Actress award at the film gala and created history. Back home, Tamil film Aranmanai 4 starring Tamannaah Bhatia and Raashii Khanna and co-produced by Khushbu Sundar has crossed the Rs 100 crore mark at the box office.
At a promotional event of the film in Mumbai today, Raashii exclusively told News18 Showsha what this feat means to women in Indian cinema. “It shows that we can carry our films on our shoulder and deliver. For this, we also need filmmakers who believe in us, filmmakers like Sundar C sir who puts the efforts of placing a film like this on the shoulder of a female actor,” she said.
While an equal representation of both genders in films remain a burning topics of conversation, Raashii believes that gender politics shouldn’t be brought in while discussing art. “I think art and cinema should be beyond gender. It’s high time we treat it like that. Films like Article 370, Crew and now Aranmanai 4 have only proven that women are as far ahead in the game as men are,” she shared.
Explaining her stance, the Farzi actor further added, “This conversation shouldn’t even happen in time. Everyone should be treated equally and art should be judged by the way it’s made and not by who has made it and that should also go beyond gender.”
Raashii also lauded India’s big win at Cannes this year and hopes that the success of women-led films should definitely improve the pay scale of women actors across the board. “I honestly think we should get better paychecks in films now. There’s a huge gap now. I hope it happens in time. It’s a process. But I’m very proud of what has happened in Cannes as well. Seeing those women was an amazing feeling. Anyone who lights the way paves the path for all of us,” she asserted.
After creating waves at the Tamil box office, Aranmanai 4 is all set to release in Hindi on June 4. For Raashii, good box office numbers in the northern belt would further go on to vindicate that stories helmed and headlines by women isn’t a rarity. “I’m not just proud of my film but also of what Indian women are achieving across the world. Now that the film is releasing in Hindi, I hope more people watch it and the numbers go higher up as that will validate our existence in the industry,” she said.
