Mumbai:Pink actress Kirti Kulhari believes women experience so much while growing up that they tend to accept that this is how society works and are then conditioned that way.
The actress says, someone had asked her when did she realise there were women-related issues in the society, and Kirti said this is something which a woman goes through while growing up.
“Through the years, being a girl, a woman, growing up—and its not just about India, but I think it’s just about being a woman—that there’s so much you experience, go through, that you almost take it for granted that may be this is how it’s meant to be, this is what being a woman feels like. You tend to ignore, learn to let go, hide some things, express some things.”
The actress, however, said her latest outing Pink made her realise that many women have faced issues in their lives but never spoke about them openly. “My experience of ‘Pink’ has made me realise and take notice of how big these issues are.
After ‘Pink’ released, when we got responses from strangers and people we knew, what shook me was how many women have experienced something or the other in their lives and have mostly not expressed it, not come out in open with it. Pink gave them courage.”
She was speaking at the third ‘Short Film Festival on Women’s Safety and Empowerment’ by US Consulate General in Mumbai in partnership with Women in Film and Television (WIFT). Kirti was part of the judging panel along with Bollywood actresses Pallavi Sharda. US Consul General Tom Vajda was also present at the event.
The event was the finale of a contest for filmmakers in western India to submit films of less than five minutes that promote and raise awareness of women’s safety and empowerment. The short film A Broken Toy, written and directed by Shivam Sharma, won the grand prize along with People’s Choice Award.
The second award went to A Girl’s Story by Harish Devnani and Jarna Devnani, and the third prize was bagged by Unmasked by Team Sophia College. Ananda Mukerjei received the Best Female Director recognition for her short film “Inaya”.
PTI