Veteran actress and social activist Shabana Azmi has expressed hope for women in Hindi cinema, observing that roles are becoming substantial for them and are being written for all age groups. “I am very hopeful. I feel the roles are becoming substantial in films that are women-centric, but even within the films themselves,” Azmi said at a special session of the Kolkata Literary Meet.
The National Award winning actress highlighted the fact that the current crop of films are incorporating characters of working women, and that women artists are demanding meatier roles.
“Today even in gangster movies, women are working. I think there is a greater understanding within the women artists themselves where they are demanding more meat if not necessarily in terms of the length, but definitely in terms of what the character is,” she said.
“Also, various age groups are being portrayed in Hindi cinema today,” she added.
“I think it is a very important time for Hindi cinema because roles are being written for all age groups.
“The advent of multiplexes has thrown up choices,” she added.
“Why did we have a certain kind of film in the 1970s and 1980s? Because the intent of the producer was to cater to the lowest common denominator because you wanted to get the maximum number of people in the audience,” she said.