Gone those days when women above 30 would only get offered with roles of grandmother or long-suffering wife and more stereotypical characters. With time and evolution, and also the rise of OTT served a different notion with the film’s characters of women, or rather better characters. With that, Lara Dutta recently opened up on how it is now for a woman above 30 working in the industry.
She said, “When I look at my recent projects, it was one of the most liberating and one of the most fulfilling experiences… Because I was playing women in their 40s,” The actress has been immensely busy with some good to go projects, where the actress was playing a 40 year old woman dealing with very real problems, in films like Hiccup and Hookups.
She further said, “I was portraying somebody who was my own age, with very real problems. These were characters that weren’t necessarily your stereotypical portrayal of women on screen, the way it has been in the past. It’s amazing and liberating to play a woman who is not perfect on screen, and is faulty and has her weaknesses,” She recently was a part of the film Bell Bottom and received best supporting role award for her work at the Dadasaheb Phalke Awards.
She further pointed out and said that how she thoroughly enjoys to get into the minds of these characters saying, “Because I understand this being in my 40s. Today, I know the psychology of these characters and the women. It is much more relatable to play these characters today, which we didn’t have earlier,”
Recalling past times, she said, “The entire cohort of women between 35 and 55 were very rarely seen and addressed on screen, whether it was in films or anything else. It was as though we didn’t exist”. “If you were over 55, you were the grandmother, or if you were in your 30s, women were playing the mothers of some of the heroes, or playing the long suffering wife or the girlfriend. Today, at least for this sector of women, there is a section of the audience, which is fantastic as you move beyond only having to be subjected to the saas bahu serials”, the actress added.
