EXCLUSIVE: ‘If Shubh Mangal Saavdhan was a woman’s story, it wouldn’t have been accepted,’ says Bhumi Pednekar

Akash Bhatnagar

October 17, 2023
6:17 pm
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In an exclusive conversation with Bollywood Bubble, Bhumi Pednekar talks about the gender bias in watching films with male and female issues, citing the example of Shubh Mangal Saavdhan. The actress recently appeared in Thank You For Coming.

Bhumi Pednekar recently appeared in Thank You For Coming and the film started a whole conversation. Since the film spoke about female pleasure, there were naysayers who found it against the culture. But the actress and the film’s team battled all the skepticism and emerged victorious.

Recently, Bhumi got in a conversation with Bollywood Bubble where she spoke about gender inequality. She opened up on women objectification through ages and how a woman taking charge scares people still.

Bhumi Pednekar on objectification of women

When pointed out that many films that objectify women go on to make big money at the box office, Bhumi laughed and said, “That’s the hypocrisy of it all right. We have objectified women through generations. We have seen them being physically and emotionally assaulted in films. And yet, even in those films, the woman had to deal with all the shame. We have seen them call names and their body parts have been called like fruits and vegetables and I don’t know what not. And we’ve been accepting of that because we take it with a pinch of salt. But the moment the charge comes in a woman’s hand, it makes you uncomfortable and it will. Look, we were prepared for this. I knew this is going to happen.”

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A post shared by Bhumi Pednekar (@bhumipednekar)

On Shubh Mangal Saavdhan…

The actress agreed that if Thank You For Coming was a man’s story, it would have been easily accepted. She pointed out that she has been a part of films like Shubh Mangal Saavdhan that also spoke of sexual issues. But that film was accepted and she explains why. Bhumi shared, “Shubh Mangal Saavdhan speaks about sexual disorder, but because it was a boy’s problem, everybody accepted it. If in the same setting, it was the girl’s problem. And if supposedly my male co-star (Ayushmann Khurrana) who is so gracious and beautiful, he also stands for the voice of change, would not have been a part of the film. Agar Shubh Mangal Saavdhan meri ek ladki ka character akela hota, people would not have accepted it. (If it was my sole, a woman’s story, people wouldn’t have accepted it).”