Mumbai, Mar 08, 2025, IANS

Mumbai, March 8 (IANS) Actress Pratibha Ranta, who is known for her work in ‘Laapataa Ladies’, feels that women empowerment in cinema can be achieved through authentic storytelling and stitching the larger-than-life narrative in our films. The actress shared her opinion on the International Women's Day, and spoke about a different facet of the special occasion, and said that it is also about celebrating women’s growth and happiness. Talking about the same, she said, “I strongly feel that apart from celebrating equality between men and women, 'Women's Day' is about celebrating yourself, your growth and your happiness. It's about everything that you bring to the table, for yourself and everyone around you. It's often said that a woman is the backbone of the society, which is absolutely true, but beyond that also, women are the very crux of the society”. The actress feels that the discrimination between men and women is prevalent in society as a whole, irrespective of the strata. There's no truth to the statement that even if a woman belongs to an upper strata, she won't face discrimination. She further mentioned, “It's also important to note that in today's time, women have found their voice and they are not afraid to speak up, whether professionally or domestically. Only women can help themselves by standing up for themselves”. Cinema often talks about equality but the objectification of women is very much prevalent in the medium. How does she navigate this? The actress shared, “The shift from women's objectification to equality is a significant transformation and progress in the belief of letting women have their much-deserved space in the fraternity. Fighting for your space has been the aim for years. There are shades of cinema that are brought to the forefront by filmmakers, and somewhere, a certain kind of content is given a push by the audiences themselves, who define a content's power by their attention. It's a collective narrative”. She continued, "The differentiation between men and women has been prevalent since long in our industry, when there's an award distribution of the 'male' category or the 'female' category. So that differentiation cannot be neglected. But in today's modern cinema, women are making their space in the media industry. They are taking up jobs that are predominantly assumed to be performed by males. So women in the industry are thriving because they are breaking this rigid assumption, and are empowering themselves with a certain degree of contribution by the industry too". "I believe that this can be achieved by playing roles that are relatable and bringing life to stories that are authentic. Gone are the days when audiences were fed anything and everything. After Covid-19, the content consumption pattern among the audiences has shifted big time, they are very conscious of what they are seeing and consuming. So only if we pay attention to bringing relatability to the screens by ditching the larger-than-life narrative, we can surely evolve in a way that's authentic and empowering", she added.