Anushka Sharma through her film choices has given us many shades of women. Through her characters in Sultan, Band Baaja Baaraat, NH10, Phillauri, Jab Tak hai Jaan, Ae Dil hai Mushkil, Sui Dhaaga among many others, Anushka powerful characters are powerful, confident, ambitious and fun-loving. Even with her production house, Sharma had provided the audience with a new-age women story. Today on the occasion of International Women’s Day she speaks about her brave choices as an actress and as a producer.
Films are a very powerful medium to influence the masses, the actress said, adding that make sure all her films have progressive women characters. She says it has always been about women empowerment and equality for her and this is reflected in her films.
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"It was liberating for me to stand up and do this for myself. I was done seeing myself as an accessory and I vowed that as a producer I would not allow any woman to be portrayed regressively. So, my film choices and then my productions are a testimony to the fact that I'm committed to sparking a conversation in society about equality, self-respect and empowerment," she says.
"Our films have the power to impact change and if done correctly, films can also condition people to make them determine between what is right and what is wrong. By being clear about how we will portray women in cinema, we can alter the mindset of people towards how they perceive women and shatter age-old, regressive beliefs, customs and traditions," she says.
She adds that this has been her thought process behind coming on board as well. "I think I have been conscious enough to select roles and films that I felt could contribute towards changing the portrayal of women on screen. It took a lot of self-belief for me to do this as an actor and then as a producer because I was somehow swimming against the tide and challenging the notion of how women were so far portrayed on screen," she says.