Vidya Balan on how makers are ‘apologetic’ of female led films: They’re afraid that men will not watch them

Vidya Balan is never one to shy away from speaking her mind. The actress recently opened up about the attitudes certain producers had when it came to female led films.

During the Womaniya 2022 discussion conducted by Film Companion, Vidya spoke of how some producers adopted an ‘apologetic’ attitude when it came to female led films. The actress said that during the promotion of some of her films, she witnessed how producers emphasised that the film was not a female led film. She had confronted the producers asking them to not ‘run away’ from the project that they did together and not be apologetic about it.Vidya was told that if she positioned it as a female led film, men would not watch it, only women would.

The makers had further told her that her 2011 film The Dirty Picture had been able to do well because there was sex in it. The actress said that it did not make sense as her films like Kahaani(2012) had also done well, despite having a pregnant woman as the protagonist.

The actress also spoke about her hit film Mission Mangal(2019), which saw her share the screen with Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Taapsee Pannu, Nithya Menen and Kirti Kulhari. Vidya said that despite having 5 leading ladies, the film would ultimately be referred to as Akshay Kumar’s film, which she said was unfortunate. “ It's not Akshay Kumar and five other leading ladies. Because we’re not being seen as having led the film in any way”, said Vidya. She also added that this was the case despite the fact that the story was not just told through Akshay.

Vidya was last seen in the Amazon Prime Video film Jalsa, which also starred Shefali Shah. Vidya is currently working on her upcoming film Neeyat.