Women actors should speak up if a scene feels wrong: Kangana Ranaut

Kangana Ranaut said women actors should share their perspective if a scene feels inappropriate, amid the controversy surrounding Peddi. She noted that filmmakers may not always realise how certain scenes are perceived until concerns are raised

Mumbai: Women actors can always share their perspective about a scene if they feel it isn’t right and directors will most likely admit that a set of men writing in a closed room would not have thought it “so bad”, says Kangana Ranaut.

The actor-politician’s comments come in the backdrop of a raging controversy over the issue of objectification of women in cinema after scenes from the Janhavi Kapoor-Ram Charan starrer “Peddi” led to outrage in several quarters.

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According to Ranaut, who is promoting her new movie “Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata”, filmmaking is all about different perspectives coming together.

“You can bring light to the scene and say, ‘It is sounding like this’. They may not want to objectify because nobody wants to make film where they are like, ‘Let’s objectify’. What I have seen is that they don’t think that way…,” Ranaut told PTI in an interview.

“So as a woman, you can share your perspective and say, ‘Yes, this is how it feels like or it is not looking nice’. Mostly they agree with you and say, ‘No, we actually didn’t think it like that. As a set of men when we were writing it in a closed room, we didn’t think it would be so bad’. These things happen. If you are working on a film, if you have accepted it, then it’s like a collaboration,” she added.

“Peddi”, a Telugu film which was dubbed in various languages, found itself at the centre of a major debate after a section of audiences criticised the film for objectifying women through its camera work, dialogues, and romantic scenes between Charan and Kapoor.

One scene in particular, where Charan’s character uses a power cut as cover to forcefully kiss Kapoor’s character Achiyyamma, drew the sharpest criticism with many viewers online terming the sequence “sexual assault”. After the uproar, the film’s director Buchi Babu Sana apologised and agreed to alter the scenes.