Bollywood actress Kriti Sanon is the new honorary ambassador of Gender Equality of UNFPA India. In this position, she is at the center of the promotion of equal opportunities and the elimination of gender stereotypes. During the event, Kriti drew on her experiences with gender norms and she admitted that, as much as she was raised in a progressive family, Inequality was too obvious to miss.
During an interview, Kriti Sanon revealed how her upbringing was a key factor in forming her psyche. Both of her parents were working professionals who distributed responsibilities at home and made it so that Kriti and her sister would not feel limited due to their gender.
But Kriti Sanon admitted that this was not the case in her mother. My mom was brought up in the era when boys could do so many things that girls could not. Girls were expected to be at home, cook and obey. She would have loved to know how to swim or dance, but she could not. Studying was the only thing that she struggled to get, and she was a professor, Kriti said.
That anguish was to form another future to Kriti Sanon and her sister. And what she thought when she saw me was, Do whatever you want to. Whatever you fantasize about, do it. That was hers, Kriti Sanon told her.
Although she did not experience bias when she was a kid, Kriti Sanon acknowledges how the industry was gender unequal in a subtle way. It has not happened very often, but minor details such as the male actor receiving a nicer car or a nicer room… The thing is not that it is a car, but I do not want to feel smaller because I am a woman. Simply equalize it, she said.
As a point on how even the tiniest of behaviours can be indicative of ingrained thinking patterns, Kriti Sanon mentioned, “There are also occasions when an AD will call the female actor and only call the male actor later. I have had to explain to them not to do that. The mindset needs to change”.
As Kriti Sanon enters her new job in UNFPA, she makes it very clear that gender equality begins with simple decisions, both at home and at work. And it starts with a defense of what is right, even in the tiniest of manners.
Kriti Sanon comes out that pay disparity in Bollywood
When Kriti Sanon spoke at the CNN-News18 event on Thursday, she said, “In fact, given all the other industries, I do not know why the pay parity is not there. Since in some types of jobs, some types of jobs, regardless of whether you are a male or a female, it should not count, and the wages should be equal. Yes we have been having this conversation a very, very long time in the movies and trust me that pinches us more than anybody.
Even when it is a film with a woman as the lead, I believe it is not put on the same budget scale as a film led by a man would. That too is because producers are afraid that they will not get as much money back. And I believe it is one of those circles where female-led films do not get as much money as the male-led films and then it becomes like, it is because his fees are higher or her fees are lower, she said.
Nonetheless, Kriti Sanon was positive about the gradual, yet observable change in the attitude of the industry. She said that the films that focus on content are now starting to dominate, whether it is a man or a woman in the lead.
She gave an example of the successful female-led film Crew to highlight the power of fun, high-budget projects fronted by women and encouraged producers to take bigger risks on the basis of stories, not gender. The movie The 2024 film was directed by Kriti in collaboration with Tabu and Kareena Kapoor. It had collected 157 crore globally and ranked among the largest grossing Hindi films last year.
Kriti’s upcoming projects
At work Kriti is preparing a number of large releases. She will appear next in opposition to Dhanush in Tere Ishq Mein, directed by Aanand L. Rai and also in Cocktail 2, directed by Homi Adajania and starring Shahid Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna.
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