Exclusive: Bitch, Badass or Bechari. Women in Films Deserve More - Ananya Panday

Ananya Panday Gehraiyaan Role and Its Complexities: In a detailed interview with SheThePeople, the actor talks about why female characters deserve to be beyond bitch, badass or bechari across films and other screen formats. What makes a strong female role today? Pandey looks at the tropes Bollywood has fallen prey to and questions why that must be.

I don't want to represent on-screen what 'men think of women' says the actor who has worked in films like Student of the Year 2 in 2019, followed by a role in Pati Patni Aur Woh in the same year.

In the film Gehraiyaan, Pandey says the female characters have layered roles and personalities that 'make them real'. She says audiences are finally accepting women and their many complex sides, the kind, her role offers in the film. Tia (played by Panday) and Alisha (played by Deepika Padukone) are cousins who grew up in a similar way but then moved on, on completely different paths. The film shows their conflicts, their relationship and has a take on how sibling behaviours evolve when put through a test.

Pandey's partner falls for Padukone in the film throwing up modern-day relationships for a test. And a screen test too perhaps? Pandey admits female characters on screen are 'finally' evolving.

"I think usually I feel women are stereotyped in films. Either they are the bitch, the badass or bechari. Within those they will find some complexity but it is usually one of the three or a combination of those." Pandey notes there are specific tropes most Bollywood characters go towards. "But now it is reassuring to see its going away and I am seeing women like myself on screen. I want to see those. I just don't want to represent women in these stereotypical roles but represent the different kind of women of India. I don't want to represent what men think women are."

Suggested Reading:

Five Bollywood Movies On Adultery To Watch Before Gehraiyaan Release

In Gehraiyaan, directed by Shakun Batra who is known for his films like Kapoor And Sons, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu picks modern dystopian relationships as its core plot. The film which will release on February 11, 2022 has Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ananya Panday in the lead.

The three navigate modern &list=PL7q0plMPm0wvyd-gLBLB56QvkvSCphFhT&index=4&t=686s">relationships with the added complexity of adultery. The trailer of the film has set high expectations among the audience as it not only has Bollywood's finest playing the lead role but also a unique plot not much explored in many films.