Screen + Sound + Stage
Text by Ranjabati Das. Illustration by Swati Sinha
There is a marked difference between how Farah Khan portrayed Deepika Padukone in her first film, Om Shanti Om (OSO) and how Rohit Shetty directed Kriti Sanon in her third Hindi film nearly a decade later in Dilwale. Although both were undeniably “Shah Rukh Khan films”, Padukone had a meatier role in OSO. However, Sanon managed to turn out a credible performance in her fifth outing; Bareilly Ki Barfi (BKB) was helmed by director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwary, who has spoken about how Sanon was tagged simply as “glamorous” in her previous films, having been cast in this mould by her male directors. “I hope that BKB redefines who she is,” she had said during the film’s promotions, hinting that the other directors had barely scraped the surface of the actor’s potential.
When men have deigned…