Women need good representation in cinema, says Bhumi Pednekar

The 31-year-old actor, who was last seen in Amazon Prime's horror thriller Durgamati, will be soon seen in her upcoming rom-com drama Badhaai Do opposite Rajkummar Rao.

New Delhi: Bollywood actor Bhumi Pednekar on Thursday talked about the importance and need for a good representation of women in cinema and how through her work she has always strived to bring light to the real women of our society.

The ace actor, who has time and again shown that she is inclined to choose social entertainers through her versatile performances in films like Toilet – Ek Prem Katha, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, Bala, Dum Laga Ke Haisha, among others, talked about why women need good representation in cinema.

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She said, “I often choose films that have a strong social message but I also think of picking projects that will do commercially well. This is important because such films need to reach out to a lot of people to drive home the message and intent. I try going for cinema that kind of balances both.”

Speaking about her movie Toilet – Ek Prem Katha, Bhumi added, “When you think about Toilet, it is one of my most commercial, socially-relevant films. But the kind of reach the film had or the kind of impact the film had, I was amazed. After the movie released, there were campaigns where fathers and mothers were at the forefront saying ‘no toilet no bride’.

That was honestly fantastic.” She further talked about her other films and said, “Ayushmann and I did a film together — Shubh Mangal Saavdhan — that speaks of human sexuality and that is something that is not spoken about. I did Lust Stories that speaks about the gender gap, class divide and woman sexuality which is something that is not spoken at all. Women are shown as people that have no desires — no ambition, no sexual desires and that is something I again want to change.”

“Through my cinema, I try portraying women that exist, women that are real. Women need good representation in cinema. I see women not having the correct representation on-screen. It really affects me,” Bhumi concluded.

The 31-year-old actor, who was last seen in Amazon Prime’s horror thriller Durgamati, will be soon seen in her upcoming rom-com drama Badhaai Do opposite Rajkummar Rao. The movie directed by Harshavardhan Kulkarni is slated for a September release this year. Besides this, she also has Karan Johar’s multi-starrer Takht in the pipeline.