Fatima Sana Shaikh: Not only women, but even men face the wrath of patriarchy

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

Fatima Sana Shaikh has had a busy July as she had two back-to-back releases with Metro… In Dino and Aap Jaisa Koi. Both the films explored love in different ways, and talking about her tryst with love stories, the actor quips, 'I'm living my love life through the films that I'm doing.' Fatima Sana Shaikh(Photo: Instagram)
In both the films, her character is battling for a relationship of equals in different ways. Ask her about it and she says, 'Equality in a relationship is very important. I don't have to be a man, I would love to be feminine and the man doesn't have to be me. But there is a synergy that is important to maintain. I don't want my partner to change me and I wouldn't want him to change because we got attracted to each other because we were ourselves. That's why it's important to first respect each other and once that happens, then everything is fine.'
In Aap Jaisa Koi, Fatima Sana Shaikh is paired opposite actor R Madhavan, who plays a character whose mindset is formed by patriarchy. The actor asserts that it's not only women but also men who suffer because of it. 'There are men also who are in a toxic relationship. The unfortunate fact is that when they come out with their stories, they're ridiculed. That's also because of patriarchy because boys are not supposed to cry. They can't complain as they are supposed to have this front that 'I take care of the family. I'll take care of everybody. I can't hurt. I'm not weak because it's not accepted'. So, it's not that only women are facing the wrath of patriarchy, even men are,' she says.
Recently, as in the case of actor Deepika Padukone and filmmaker Sandeep Reddy Vanga's alleged feud over the film Spirit raised a debate about when female actors make any demands, they are termed unprofessional or difficult to work with. Ask Fatima if she feels that women taking a stand for themselves ruffles the feathers of male bigwits in the industry even today and she agrees. 'In any profession men are more, especially in corporate. There are only a few professions where women are more in numbers,' she says.
However, the actor asserts that things are changing: 'The understanding of what actually a woman thinks, it's changing because there are more women who are now working. The perception is now breaking about how a woman should be like, what kind of roles she should do. Now, we can imagine a woman also being a villain. Earlier, we used to see only men as antagonists. Even in corporations, we could only imagine a man being a boss but not a woman. But if a woman is playing that character, then she carries the baggage of what a woman in real life carries when she's at that position,' she ends.