Bhumi Pednekar Says She 'Hates' ‘Female-led’ Label For A Movie

Bhumi Pednekar was last seen in the movie Bhakshak, which was based on a real-life incident. The actress played the role of a reporter from Bihar in the film. She will be seen in another series Daldal soon. Ahead of its release, Bhumi has expressed reservations about the term ‘female-led’ films.  

Bhumi Pednekar says she feels the ‘female-led’ label is annoying 

In a statement, Bhumi Pednekar has opened up about her films being labelled as ‘female-led’. She called the term ‘annoying’ and said, “Here is a misconception that people are not immediately drawn to watch films or content headlined by women. Such projects are immediately bracketed as ‘female-led projects’. This is an annoying term and I hate it from my gut.” 

She added that gender does not play a role in making the audience watch a piece of content. She added, “Gender doesn’t define people’s watching preference. The audience wants to see good cinema and good content. They aren’t choosing to watch it based on gender. It’s ridiculous.” 

Bhumi Pednekar weighs on male-led films being more saleable than female-led movies 

In the same conversation, the Dum Laga Ka Haisha actress opined that male-led films work better at the box office and are thus preferred by producers. She argued, “If that was the case, I wouldn’t have survived and I have built a career out of essaying remarkably strong women on screen! I got lucky because I started working at a time that coincided with how women characters were being written for cinema. There were author-backed roles written for me.”

The actress also stated that she has worked in several films that are labelled as ‘women-led’. She added, “Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Lust Stories, Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Saand Ki Aankh, Bala, Pati Patni Aur Woh are all films that had women driving the story and they are all successful projects.” She says that the misconception surrounding such movies needs to be stopped. She added, “So, I feel it’s high time we discard all misconceptions and back projects led by women and give it the scale and mounting that we truly deserve.”