EXCLUSIVE: Kirti Kulhari remarks on ‘unequal treatment’ of actors based on STARDOM; reflects on Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu & Kalki Koechlin films

Kirti Kulhari is an Indian actress who works in Hindi-language films and series. She made her acting debut with the film Khichdi: The Movie in 2010 and then starred in Shaitan in 2011. She is known to be a part of Mission Mangal starring Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan and others. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Bubble, Kirti Kulhari speaks about what are the issues women face on sets.

Kirti Kulhari on issues faced by females on sets

When asked about what are the issues faced by females on sets, Kirti Kulhari answered, “I mean not to this extent, I started out with ads, I was pretty much the face of the ads I was doing. I have surely witnessed that in, even in ads jab aap naya face hote hai then. Even if you are the main lead of the thing you will get your due importance because they pretty much need you all the time, but otherwise, if there’s a known actor in front of you then of course the dynamics change, it’s quite obvious.”

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The actresses said, “Even in films, depending on, aap kiske saath hai, aapke saath kaun hai. I mean now, of course, it’s different but, I remember initially there was ‘Shaitaan’, Kalki was a more popular name so then there was a different treatment to her, on ‘Pink’ was a different treatment for Taapsee because she was a bigger name then on ‘Mission Mangal’ there were 5-6 of us but, by that time I had stopped taking this so personally, I had understood ki aisa hota hai, matlab aapke paas agar bada naam hai toh unke hisab matlab unko woh importance diya jayega.”

She continued, “I personally, wish to avoid that because anyway if you have a bigger name, aap uske hisab se unko paise de rahe hai, uske hisab se facilities de rahe hai. Aapko unko fir aur alag se treat karne ki zarurat nahi hai, at least now treat everyone equally. Yeah respect toh aap sabko barabar de sakte hai, toh that is something I wish to work on. Toh yeh A crew B crew ka joh khana hota hai that hasn’t happened with me. Waha tak gayi nahi hu mai but, just the distinction in our head like B crew can have a lesser quantity or quality of food. I don’t like that distinction, yeh bohot choti cheeze hoti hai. Mera maana hai ki overall mai jitna ek logo ko individual dignity aur equality ko apna barkarar rakh saku apne set pe, apni team me.”

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Kirti Kulhari on equal rights for men & women

Kirti said, “I will work towards that in every which way possible. Also, very practically, loos for women, alag se bohot baar, of course, artist ke liye toh hote hai but crew hota hai female crew unki sanitation ka unka khayal nahi rakkha jata, that’s something that’s always on my mind, and not just females, what do we expect from males? Arrey males toh kahi par bhi kar lenge, kyu? Kyu?“

She concluded, “I mean the idea is not kahi bhi kar lenge, of course, you make different arrangements for women but at the same time men are also humans, they also have some dignity, aisa thodi kahi bhi jaakar karlenge so just basic, human things taken care of changes the whole vibe of the set and, I love cinema for a reason, I still feel it’s a people’s medium, it’s people who create something magical and if those people are happy, spirited, they will give their best.”

Written by Akankshya Mukherjee and transcribed by Harsh Nargolkar

Watch the full interview

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