Mumbai: Kajol, Shruti Hassan and Neena Kulkarni – actresses belonging to different generations – have worked together in the short film Devi. They insist that real empowerment will happen when women unite and share sisterhood, and catfight becomes an outdated concept.
For Shruti, sisterhood is an important aspect of empowerment. “I think the sisterhood is not strong enough, and that is one of the important aspects of empowerment. Even in the film, these women start off with fights and argument, but in the end they unite because the root cause is the same – all are victims. Why do we have to deal with something as rape to support and stand by each other? If we want to bring about a change, we have to celebrate sisterhood, we should celebrate each other’s achievements and stand by each other,” asserted Shruti.
Directed by Priyanka Banerjee, Devi revolves around a group of rape victims, from different socio-economic strata, and how they unite to fight a heinous crime like rape.
“Women are facing atrocities and discrimination worldwide, and unless we stand by each other we will never be able to bring the bigger change. We have to understand that crime like rape and other social discrimination is happening on women beyond age, caste and social status. So, why can’t we just unite beyond caste, age and socio-economic status,” asked Shruti.
While gender-based discrimination has been happening for ages, it is also true that women often engage in catfights.
Kajol, who portrays a rape-victim housewife in Devi, however, blamed society for the catfights women engage in.
“Catfight is imposed in our mind by society to create insecurity among us, women. I find it is nonsense. When it comes to fights and arguments among women, I would say it is only natural that no two human beings have to get along with each other. Not everyone has to be my friend. That does not mean the person is my enemy or hater. It is high time we women unite to celebrate sisterhood because catfights are outdated,” Kajol asserted.
The film also features Neha Dhupia, Mukta Barve, Sandhya Mhatre, Rama Joshi, Yashaswini Dayama and Shivani Raghuvanshi.
Neena had her take on the matter also. “Humein insecure feel karaya jata hai (we are made to feel insecure) and we were conditioned to look at another happy woman as competition. I have been working in the entertainment industry for the last 46 years, and I have friends here who stand by each other. I think so-called ‘bromance’ and ‘brotherhood’ is a new concept. We women have always been standing, celebrating and fighting together against all the atrocity,” asserted Neena.
Agencies