Shabana Azmi Speaks on How Women Characters Are Shown as More Realistic and Meaningful in Films

Shabana Azmi talks about the switch in preference of showcasing women characters on the screen as working professionals from just silent virtuous females.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: May 27, 2023

Actress Shabana Azmi is having a great time in her career right now. She is shooting outside India for some international projects, attending film festivals, and essaying diverse roles in Bollywood with a narrative about drastic changes, especially toward women characters on the big screen. She feels that the portrayal of women in cinema is becoming more realistic. Azmi says that women’s characterization in the Hindi film industry is changing as back in the 1960s, the female roles were primarily about being silent in any circumstances, and that was considered an important virtue.

However, today things are different, and such portrayals will not be ideal for the current audience and at the box office. The veteran actor talks about What’s Love Got to Do with It, her latest release, explaining her point. She shares that if you see at the film and her character, it is not a role that is liberating or of a feminist. Instead, she is shown as the matriarch of the family. The actress takes the character of someone who will go to any lengths to keep her children and family together.

But Shekhar Kapur, the director always focused on pro-women characterization. She says that when depicting female characters, filmmakers are bringing a shift in the narrative, trying for it on the big screen. Azmi points out that at one time, it was believed that all females wore yellow chiffon sarees in India and dance in the Alps, and there was no concept then of a professional or working woman.

The actress is happy to see a gradual shift introduced in the industry. She says that the films show working women these days even if the depiction is of rural or urban India. Even if it is a love story, females are doing something and, in a profession, just falling for someone. And that signifies the changes, which are only for the better.