Happy Birthday Shruti Haasan: More than just a pretty face

Shruti was also largely affected by this problem. There were not enough roles written for her that challenged the actor in her. The roles that could help her grow and evolve as an actor. She did films in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, but not many films provided her with an ample scope to showcase what she is capable of. She was just a pretty face in the majority of the films she did. It is not just Shruti’s problem. Many talented women actors have come, impressed us and disappeared without a trace or continue to struggle to find right roles that will actually do justice to do their artistic talents.

It is part of a bigger problem of the Indian film industry, which even in the 21st century is still reluctant to put women in the driver’s seat. We hardly get to watch films that narrate stories that have been built around a woman protagonist.

The popular argument is that women actors don’t bring in record-breaking collections at the box office like their male counterparts. Well, this popular ill-informed and arbitrary conviction of the industry has been broken several times in the past. Wasn’t Kangana Ranaut’s Queen a woman-centric film? Didn’t it emerge one of the biggest box office hits in 2014?

The selling point of Tanu Weds Manu is Kangana’s character and not Madhavan. She kept the cash registers ringing at the box office. In the South Indian film industry, Nayanthara and Anushka Shetty now enjoy the fan following at par with their male counterparts. Anushka’s recently released film Bhaagamathie opened to packed houses worldwide and is expected to become a big commercial hit of the Telugu film industry this year.

Aaram, one of the successful Tamil films of last year, only got made because Nayanthara agreed to play the lead role. Aruvi, which has got everyone raving, is also a woman-centric film. Malayalam actor Parvathy is giving her male counterparts run for their money when it comes to performance or box office collections.

And we can go on and on citing several examples to make a case why it would be a big lie to say the market size of women-centric films is way too inferior to hero-centric films. With easy access to quality content made around the world, the audiences are evolving faster than the filmmakers. Many big hero films made on the lavish budget with wafer-thin script have been rejected by the audience. While low-budget films, irrespective of the gender of the protagonist, with good content have emerged successful.

The question is how willing are the Indian filmmakers to write interesting characters for women actors, instead of just using them to make male actors look good in films.

Shruti seems to have realised the biased nature of the industry early in her career. However, she still has time to redefine the kind of artist she wants to be. When she returns, we can expect to witness a beginning of a new phase in her career. She has promised to put more focus on her music career, which made her a hit with the audience in the first place. “I’ll compose a lot of music this year, which I’ve been really wanting to do for quite some time. It’s something I enjoy a lot and have received applause for. It’s also another side to my artistic personality, so I want to give more time to it. I want to create a balance between this and the films that I want to do,” Shruti told DNA in an interview.