With the much-hyped action film ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ also relegating happening Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone to just few scenes and dialogues, while Amitabh Bachcan and Prabhas hogged the limelight. Similarly, hotshot Sreeleela didn’t have much to do in ‘Guntur Kaaram’ and was just there to dance with hero Mahesh Babu and then enact a few scenes. It looks like male-dominated themes continue to give a raw deal to actresses in tollywood. “This is truly a sad situation for top actresses since they are capable of delivering good performances rather than just looking pretty and their roles could have been much better,” says director Teja, who claims to have given equal importance to Kajal Aggarwal in his film ‘Nene Raju Nene Mantri’. “Even big stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikanth didn’t mind giving more space to female characters in their movies. For instance, in ‘Robo, Aishwarya Rai had a key role opposite Rajnikanth. Similarly, the massive success of ‘Baahaubali’ could be attributed to the roles played by both Prabhas and Anushka Shetty, not to mention Ramya Krishna. Even a film like ‘Atharantiki Daaredi’, had an important role for Nadiya since women play a key role in real life too. Hence, directors have to strike a balance between hero and heroine rather than holding bias towards the hero,” he addsEven a talented actress like Shraddha Srinath was restricted to a few light-hearted moments and for shedding tears in her last release ‘Saindhav’. Less said the better about the poorly-etched role of Kajal Agarwal in ‘Bhagavanth Kesari’. Despite playing a psychologist, she is forced to chase middle-aged hero Balakrishna for her love. Earlier, big names like Tammanaah (Bholaa Shankar), Shruti Haasan (Veera Simha Reddy,) Ritu Varma (Mark Antony), and Anu Emmanuel (Ravanasura), weren’t spared and had to be content doing dance moves with heroes and evoke a few laughs while hero takes center-stage and usurps most of the screen space. However, producer Vishnu Induri rules out any bias among producers and directors. “It all depends on a particular script and character and bias is just a myth,” he says and adds, “Industry is hero-driven, and directors tend to give more screen space to superstars. Everyone knows that stars are crowd pullers and need to cater to their fans and there’s a lot of money riding on such movies. Of course, there are films where heroines had prominent roles, so male chauvinism ruling the industry is an unfair argument,” he informsSumming up the trend, actress Priyamani says, “The film industry has always been hero-driven, but heroines are also gaining their space. We listen to the scripts and only then step into the project. We know the output and our screen time and relevance too.” She adds that times are changing and heroines play key roles these days. “Actresses work with big stars to reach out to a wider audience; Also actresses have proved that they are capable of more than just dancing and looking pretty, albeit, it is part of an actor’s job.” The new-age filmmakers are changing too. “A heroine is not there for romantic scenes and we are also doing action and other stuff with ease. Tinsel town has changed, so let us shed this stereotyping business,” concludes Priyamani.
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