Actress Dia Mirza revealed about the challenges and struggles mainly faced by women in the film industry. In an interview with BBC Hindi she told about the casual sexism that she used to encounter on a film set when she was starting out two decades ago.
Further she mentioned that even the minimum requirements such as washrooms and changing rooms weren’t made available to ladies in the film industry, who would also be immediately labelled as unprofessional at the slightest opportunity. She also added that the practice set was imbalanced against women.
Asked about the everyday sexism that she would have to face, and why it was so common, Dia said in Hindi, ‘Because there were so few women working on film sets, there would be hurdles around every corner. There would be differences in how we were treated, in the amenities that were available to us. Our vanity vans would be smaller. When we would go to locations to shoot songs, a basic thing like a toilet wouldn’t be available. We would have to go behind trees, behind rocks, and three people would shield you with large sheets. We wouldn’t have space to change clothes. Basically, we lacked an access to privacy, access to basic hygiene.’
She continued, ‘But even simple things, like if our male counterparts would show up late, nobody would say a word to them. But if any sort of delay happened because of a woman, we were immediately labelled unprofessional.’ Many female actors have spoken about the tardiness of male stars, as well as hygiene and privacy issues on film sets back in the day. ‘Back then when we went for shoots, the studios didn’t have bathrooms and we used to sit there the entire day without going to the bathroom. Thankfully, I didn’t have any kidney-related problems. Sometimes we even changed our clothes behind bushes,’ Asha Parekh told ANI at the Indian Film Festival of India.
On her granddaughter Navya Naveli Nanda’s podcast, Jaya Bachchan also shared her memories of the troubles she had to face on film sets. ‘When we used to do outdoors, we didn’t have vans. We had to change behind the bushes. Everything. There were not even enough toilets. It was awkward and embarrassing. You used 3-4 sanitary pads and you carried plastic bags to discard the pads and put them in a basket so that when you get home, you can get rid of it,’ Jaya said.
