Bollywood actress Pooja Bhatt on gender bias and bigotry in ‘Bombay Begums’

Gulf News

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00:00Have you had it all? Do you think you have it all? At least in your head, in your own head.

00:04I think the day I tell myself I have it all, is the day that I'll just, that's the end of the road for me.

00:11They say that movies or series don't have any gender, it's either a good movie or a bad movie.

00:16I kind of don't agree fully that it's a good film or a bad film.

00:20I do feel there's something about a film that has a female gaze and one that doesn't have a female gaze.

00:27There is something about a sort of gendered gaze and I feel like some films, they really have a very obviously non-female gaze which is often quite jarring.

00:39They don't look at women the way a more sensitive point of view will look at them.

00:45So I definitely think that that goes beyond a good and a bad film which is why you have things like the Bechdel test to see whether a film or a series meets that.

00:54Cinema has been moulded by men for decades and decades and the entire cinematic language has been created by men.

01:01So I think for women to make a space over there, I think that it is important to look at the point of view of the work as well.

01:10And I think, I mean which is why I feel like you know representation is important behind the camera to see really that kind of change happening in front of the camera as well.

01:22So I feel like there is something to think about that it's not just a good film.

01:29There is something about gender in terms of looking at cinema.

01:32Do you think this series will change the way we look at working women in urban areas?

01:39I think the idea is to kind of examine the lives of working women.

01:43I don't know how much power one story has to change things but it definitely has the power to make people think and question things and examine things and like provoke thought.

01:54Can women have it to them?

01:55It all depends on what that all is and you know who decides what all is.

02:01And sometimes no matter what you achieve in your life you're looked upon as a failure because you're not married.

02:08And you're married with children and you're a homemaker you're looked upon as a failure because

02:11you're not a career woman, you're both and you've been married and you're a career woman as well

02:15and you decide to live life on your own you're asked but when are you getting married again?

02:21When are you having that child because until you know a woman doesn't have a child really she's not

02:26meant to have really kind of become a woman in that sense so I think that it's something that

02:31we need to decide for ourselves what that all is.

02:34Have you had it all? Do you think you have it all?

02:35Well I'm 49 and I don't feel like my life is over.

02:39I feel that with Bombay Begums it's kind of beginning all over again.

02:42I think the day I tell myself I have it all is the day that I just that's the end of the road for me.

02:47Glad I don't have it all in that sense but I think that one goes out there and

02:51tries to live a life that gives one a degree of satisfaction.

02:55I totally agree with Pooja, the day you start feeling like everything's fine you stop growing,

02:59you stop seeking new things and new experiences and all of that and if we are not growing even

03:05if we potentially have it all I think that having it all can't

03:09make you happy if you're not constantly trying to evolve as a person.

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