It has been 10 years since Kareena Kapoor proudly claimed, ‘Akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai’ in Jab We Met and 20 years since Rani Mukerji married her rapist in her debut film Raja Ki Ayegi Baraat. Bollywood may have turned a blind eye to the glaring misogyny then, but things are changing.
A friendly wake of feminism has washed over the otherwise conventional Bollywood, thanks to Radhika Apte. She is not your typical Bollywood actress, which is evident from her choice of roles in Sacred Games, Ghoul, Lust Stories and Parched.
From taking on patriarchy head-on in Parched to exploring love, sex in Lust Stories, to playing a RAW agent in Sacred Games, she has done varied roles, with immaculate finesse. Despite all the success, women playing strong roles in the industry is still looked at, with a pair of misogynistic lenses perhaps.
While some call Apte ‘overexposed’, some shamed her for taking on bold roles. Also, if that’s not enough to put her down, now the self-proclaimed Bollywood pundits are crying, ‘Are we seeing too much of Apte?’
Let us put an end to all your wailing by conclusively stating that Apte in now a regular face in many Netflix series because of her acting prowess and impeccable talent. Besides, she just made her third appearance in a Netflix original, Ghoul. Do we smell a hint of jealousy or a whiff of a giant load of bullshit?
Imagine this, if Rajkummar Rao, who has four releases this year plus a series on Alt Balaji, was in her place, what would have been the scene? A PR campaign and hour-long interviews with Rajeev Masand and Anupama Chopra. Radhika gets memes. Akshay Kumar has consistently had 3 movies every year, four even, but he then he is a shrewd businessman. Radhika still gets memes. Vicky Kaushal meanwhile is readying for his fifth movie release coming September. He gets to be an award favourite. Radhika is stuck with memes.
In a country where Taimur Ali Khan’s frown becomes a national headline, or the title of Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter is enough to get on the cover of Vogue, we have twitter threads judging Radhika for doing too many good shows. Sigh!
Netflix is one of the most watched and reputed streaming platform across the world, and we are still trying to work out the flipside if any.
Meanwhile, the actress herself recognises the misogyny in the industry and has been actively speaking out against the unfair treatment of women in the industry.
She was quoted as saying, ‘We don’t live in an equal society. But if society is like that, then you can’t expect anything different from the industry. We should be talking about how society treats its women instead. That’s where the change needs to begin.’
