At Expresso, Javed and Zoya discuss society’s treatment of women, on-screen intimacy

Lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar joined his daughter and filmmaker Zoya Akhtar for the third session of Expresso, held in Mumbai Thursday. Javed and Zoya reflected on a wide range of topics — the state of Hindi cinema, the evolution of stardom, how societies that exalt the mother figure treat women, and, of course, Amitabh Bachchan.

“In any society where there is a lot of premium on the mother, it means women are in a bad shape. They are in trouble. ‘Ma ki pooja hone chahiye (we should worship Ma).’ But what about the women you don’t worship, who also coincidentally include your wife? Okay, people should respect my mom but what about the mother of my kids? This is all rubbish. They put so much premium on mothers so they can misbehave with other women,” Javed said.

Reflecting on his relationship with Amitabh Bachchan, he said: “We were sharp enough to realise that Amitabh Bachchan was a great actor… We backed his talent, and he repaid us with his great performance”.

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Zoya discussed the role of censorship in filmmaking and stressed the need to show consensual physical intimacy on screen. “I grew up at a time when women were bullied, beaten up, harassed, and sexually assaulted on screen. All these were allowed, but you couldn’t show a kiss. People should be allowed to see love, tenderness, physical intimacy between two adults.”

The session was moderated by Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group and Head of New Media at The Indian Express, along with Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Columnist and Contributing Editor at The Indian Express.