10 Bollywood Actors Who Called Out Sexism In Public

During The Kapil Sharma Show, Andrea Kevichusa politely and firmly shut down a flirty and sexist question. Here are 10 other Bollywood actors that called out sexism in public.

Anek’s director Anubhav Sinha and lead actors Andrea Kevichusa and Ayushmann Khurrana appeared as guests on The Kapil Sharma Show, a comedy show that contains celebrity interviews.

After the introduction, Kapil Sharma asked Andrea Kevichusa “Can I call you just beautiful”, since he could not pronounce her name. Kevichusa immediately responded, “I think Andrea is just appropriate.” It's common decency to call people by their name and pronounce it properly, so should television hosts be struggling with their guests’ names?

10 Bollywood Actors Who Called Out Sexism In Public

• After she voiced her opinion, actor Sonam Kapoor was called a bimbo in a Twitter thread. In response, Kapoor tweeted, “This the exact misogynistic mentality I was talking about.” She added that “Name calling doesn’t make you smarter ”.
• Kangana Ranaut was asked about the ‘shelf life' of female actors in Bollywood, to which she responded “People very conveniently ask these questions to women, But they would never ask this question to a man. This question itself is unfair and shouldn’t be asked.” Ageism is an issue in Bollywood and several movies have cast women as the male lead’s mothers, even though there is a very small age gap. Actor Anushka Shetty played Prabhas’ wife in Baahubali, in Baahubali 2, she played the role of Prabhas’ mother. At the time of release, Shetty was 36 and Prabhas was 38.
• Ananya Panday spoke on The Ranveer Show about how during the beginning of her career people made sexist comments and unwanted suggestions about her body. She said “Is that what people truly care about? Is that what I’m reduced to? Is there anything about me that is more important than my waist or chest size?”
• Neena Gupta was trolled for meeting lyricist and poet Gulzar while wearing shorts. Gupta responded and said that, “I would like to educate some trolls who were targeting me for wearing shorts while meeting Gulzar Sahab. We became friends when he used to pick me up every morning to play tennis. So, we were always wearing shorts when we met”.
• After Priyanka Chopra was referred to as ‘the wife of Nick Jonas’ by a media outlet, Chopra said “Very interesting that I’m promoting one of the most iconic film franchises of all time, and I’m still referenced as “the wife of”. She asked whether she should add her IMDB link to her social media account.
• Janhvi Kapoor spoke about how women are held to a certain standard, and if they do not reach it people think they have the right to say anything, She said “As a woman, if you’re not meeting a certain standard then everyone has the right to say something”.
• During an interview, a reporter assumed that Ranveer Singh financed the film Chappaak, and said that in a way he was a producer as his money had gone into the film. To this, Deepika Padukone responded with “Excuse me, ye kisne bola? Ye mere khud ke paise hai… Meri mehanat hai.” (Excuse me, who said that? This is my own money, this is my hard work.)
• A reporter asked Vidya Balan whether she would appear in more women-centric films or focus on weight loss. Balan expressed her confusion over what the connection was between women-centric films and weight loss before replying. She said “Mein jo kaam karri hu usse bahut khush hu. Aap logo ka nazariya badal jaye toh bahut accha hoga.” (I am very happy with the work I’m doing. If you people changed your perception then it would be very good.)
• Maintaining journalistic integrity and focusing on important questions, a reporter asked Sunny Leone whether she would rather give him a kiss or one crore rupees. Leone chose neither of the options and said that he had gotten one chance “to ask me anything and that’s what you asked.”
• Taapsee Pannu spoke about the misogyny and sexism she had seen, including being replaced in movies because the male lead’s wife did not want her to be in the film. She also recounted an incident a male lead wanted to change her character’s introduction scene “because he felt it would overpower his introduction scene”.
  Pannu added that these were incidents that took place in front of her. “I don’t know what’s happening behind my back”.

Suggested Reading: These Seven Bollywood Films Really Called Out Sexism