Ritabhari Chakraborty has been acting in
movies in her native Bengali as well as in Hindi movies and is also credited
with being the youngest producer in West Bengal. The role she took on in her
latest movie of a priestess was in her words very interesting. The
discrimination over menstruation and Kanyadan which was addressed in the film
was a national problem. However since it was made in Bengali and censorship was
different everywhere, she pointed out it was not a problem. The producers she
pointed out were now trying to remake it in Hindi and the challenges would be
different. She said given the kind of censorship coming into OTT how much would
be coming into the Hindi film. Bengalis she felt were more progressive as a
culture and that was due to education. She hastened to say that other states
which were also more educated were progressive. Ritabhari said while speaking
about God it was important to get the tone right which was perfect in Bengali
but she did not know whether it would be possible to get it right in a movie
made for a national audience. She said she was not aware of any movie which
combined God and menstruation which was considered impure was combined. She had
expected a backlash in her state as well when the film was released but that
did not happen.
She said many times, stars did not want to
comment and bigger the stars greater the fear. Ritabhari said “Anurag Kashyap
is a very good friend of mine and because I am the sole connection to him from
Bengal, I get called by newspapers asking me if I believed what he had said. I
have to keep reminding them that he is my friend and he is allowed to have his
own opinions. I support him in having a voice. I am apolitical because I come
from a state not dominated by them and if they come tomorrow, I have never seen
a government take things so personally. Every government is criticized, Indira
Gandhi was criticized, Nehru is still and the government has to take it with a
pinch of salt. That is why the opposition is there and there is checks and
balance”.
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Closely associated with Facebook which ran a
campaign on misinformation, she was told not to be obvious of what
misinformation she was talking about. She hoped things would improve and said
“As a woman I don’t feel safe in this country and that is shameful when we call
India, Mother India”.
When asked about
whether women actors are facing discrimination in the industry and how she
navigated it if she has faced it, Ms. Ritabhari said
that, “There is a lot of content revolving around women, all of which should be
said in feminine voice; however, it’s not happening due to various reasons like
satellite rights. Women are always not in
need of being rescued, we too have our stories to tell. Male content is sought
after and female content is not, that is the discrimination we face.”
While sharing her wish
to have more producers who take up different ideas, Ms. Ritabhari added that:
“It’s content, not the hero or heroine, which matters”.
Asked what she
intended to do next, she said things there were a lot of things on the boil and
she was not keen on revealing details now. With regards to OTT platforms, she
said there was so much out there in terms of content and she was not very keen.
She planned to release another single shortly having released one earlier. She hoped
for the best as she signed off.
