Despite a long and successful career in Bollywood, Kareena Kapoor acknowledges the age discrimination towards women in Bollywood.
There's been hardly any Hindi film in which an older woman and a younger man's relationship is presented without judgement and treated like any other relationship.
The 39-year-old actress, who has always been a game changer and has been paired with relatively younger male actors such as Arjun Kapoor (Ki & Ka) and Sumeet Vyas (Veere Di Wedding), asserts that the people behind the scenes, including writers, directors, studios and producers, need to be agents of change.
"Now when I am older, I will definitely do that kind of part (an older woman romances a younger man), and break the norm. People do fall in love. Look at Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, they are from different generations. Saif (Ali Khan) and me are from different generations but we fell in love. What is the big deal? But yes, producers' mindsets need to change," says Kareena.
The actress also speaks candidly about the pay disparity in Bollywood and her latest film Good Newwz, which marks her reunion with Akshay Kumar, her co-star of many movies.
While discussing the fight for equal pay for women, Kareena says, "Now with Anushka (Sharma), Deepika (Padukone, with Chhapaak) becoming producers, the conversation is slightly different. Producers are left with no choice but to involve the heroine on board to get the kind of kickback because they are bringing in that amount of revenue."
Is it not unfortunate that female actors have to turn producers in order to get into a comfortable negotiating space? Kareena responds, "This change requires a bigger dynamic rather than only in the film fraternity. Film is only a small fraction of this society. For that, there has to be a dramatic change in terms of your DNA. It is the way, say a man looks at a woman on streets, that should also change for that matter. But I am glad that a small part is at least being acknowledged now, and conversation is on."
On reuniting with Akshay in Good Newwz, the actress says, "I love Akshay because he is a true blue bonafide superstar, and the phase he is currently in, I would rightly say that he is in the same phase that probably Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan has gone through. He enjoys that kind of success and stardom. But he doesn’t let it go to his head, and that is what I really love about him. It is an amazing comfort working with him."
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