Farah Khan: “Why should women directors be pigeonholed into one thing?”

Farah Khan is probably the only female mainstream commercial movie director in India. She has her critics, and her film stories (or a lack of them) aren’t always appreciated by the audience. Yet, she is perhaps the most successful woman director in the country today. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Khan talks about work-life balance and how she has grown over the years.

After the success of her last film, ‘Happy New Year,’ Farah Khan has some time on her hands, that she prefers to spend with her triplets, who are now seven years old. Once famous for her cussing she says she has dialed down since she had her kinds. She reveals that she never raises her voice in front of them.

She says, “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs. Cussing is the only thing that is keeping me from sainthood. I cuss a lot, but not out of anger or malice. I’ve been doing it since very long. I’ve been trying to fit in and be one of the boys since college. It was a way of trying to fit in with the guys and trying to be one of them. Now I don’t want to be one of the guys, I’m far superior to the guys (laughs).”

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She loves what she does and refuses to be confined to a stereotype.  She is happy making films that are larger-than-life. “Why should women directors be pigeonholed into one thing? I want to make a movie with five male characters, what is everyone’s problem?” she asks. But like most working mothers she finds it extremely difficult to be free of guilt when working.

She reveals that staying away from her children, when shooting, is very difficult for her. She says women have a ‘guilt gene’ in their bodies’ that seems to be missing in men. “Luckily in India we have some sort of a support system – be it family or professional help. I can’t really compare myself to other women, I was 43 when I had the triplets, but I could afford to keep nannies. Imagine, people do this without help, hats off to them.”

Whether one appreciates or dismisses Khan’s work, what can’t be ignored is her determination and her refusal to live life on anybody else’s terms. Khan today, is a successful director, choreographer and a mother and she plays all of these roles beautifully.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2014/12/07/farah-khan-interview_n_6282600.html