The sensibility of their films may be poles apart, but recently, filmmakers Farah Khan and Dibakar Banerjee were seen on a common platform as they participated in The Bridge Conclave on gender equality for men and women in India.
One of the few commercially-successful female filmmakers in the country, Farah has also become an inspiration for many women as they learn from her values of hard work, facing struggles strongly and not letting dreams die.
Farah said, “I don't have a particular definition for feminism, I am not anti-men and I think one can be feminist with the support and help of men. I truly believe that men and women are meant to be equal. I want that men and women should be treated and paid equally.”
A mother of three, Farah maintained that she treated her children (2 girls, 1 boy) equally. “They go to judo as well as belly dance classes. Like most lessons of life, I think sense of gender equality and manners is something which we should teach our children since childhood."
Farah remarked that men should be more feminist than women. “They should support women. My husband is very supportive and that’s why I have been able to come this far. I suppose it’s okay when a women goes out for work and man does house work. This thing should be adopted by all families out there and equality should be reared.” She pointed out the thought of gender equality gets reflected in films like Piku , Pink , Queen and Kahaani, which are women-centric films but directed by male directors.
According to Farah, Bollywood is essentially a business module and it pays actors on the basis of success of their films, “If we see, Salman Khan's Sultan made around 300 crores and Deepika Padukone's Piku made around 50 crores. So the two actors cannot be paid equally.” She urged people to go out in theatres and watch women-centric films instead of downloading and watching them at home.
However, her films never talk about feminsim overtly or otherwise. “For me, feminism is not like making a film based on two girls which not many people want to see. But, if we see it differently, I make the most feminist films because I compete with big guys in the industry. My films are more successful and earn more money than many male directors. I think I am fighting the battle head-on which makes me very feminist,” laughed Farah.
Elaborating on item songs, which Farah’s films often have, the director said, “Women are not the item in the songs, it's the song which is termed as item, and in the scheme of the film the song appears as an item. Item songs are purely business models which is shown in the film to attract public. In all my item songs girls are sexy, beautiful and sensuous but not obscenely sexual. I never degrade the women that way.” If item songs are so bad for society, she added, then audience should stop watching and dancing on them and filmmakers will stop making them.
Power equation
Dibakar said, “I believe that all relations are essentially power relations. Everyone fights for power. Also when it comes to gender inequality, I just feel frustrated and angry but I can’t really feel what a woman is going through.”
As a Bengali boy who grew up in Karol Bagh, Dibakar talked about how bullying affected him during his childhood. “I believed that the difference is that of big guys and small guys. If you are good in studies, big guys will tease you for sure. I learnt to be accepted in the group by learning Hindi. The kind of negotiation that was required to be a part of the group was to behave like Delhi boys: macho and bold,” reflected Dibakar.
Going forward on gender inequality, Dibakar went down memory lane, “I remember girls during our school days used to speak a lot of English. Phrases like ‘shut up’, ‘get lost’, etc were commonly used by them to refrain from talking to the guys they were not interested in. Also guys had to learn some sort of English to be able to talk to the girls,” quipped Dibakar.
Talking about dwelling into female psyche, Dibakar revealed that he would be having a female protagonist in his upcoming movie because he wanted to understand things from her point of view as well. Stressing on the importance of power, Dibakar said, “I think men and women are fighting for power. Once the power is gone, 90 percent of the relationship is gone.”
Also talking about how this stereotypical behaviour is so latent that it sometimes becomes invisible and tend to be taken for granted, Dibakar pointed out, “My mother or sister serve me food every time. It is this ideology that a woman should serve food at home that is so ingrained in us that it cannot be ignored. I really don’t know if I can empathise with them but I feel angry and guilty for sure.”
