Pallabi Purkayastha (BOMBAY TIMES; December 10, 2017)

After years of maintaining stoic silence on the accusations of portraying regressive characters in her movies, Sonakshi Sinha has finally opened up on the long overdue issue. At an event on women’s empowerment and safety, hosted by the US Consulate in Mumbai recently, the actress stated, “Only I was accused of doing ‘regressive’ roles, not the writer who wrote the script or the director who made the film. I went on the defensive and thought to myself, ‘Maybe, I should start doing different roles’. So, I did Akira, Force 2 and then Noor; for Akira, I even learnt Karate, which empowered me.”

The event, an initiative to promote activism against gender-based violence, also showcased eight short films that were judged by a jury comprising model-turned-actress Sarah Jane Dias, actress Seema Biswas and director Alankrita Shrivastava, among others.

Talking about the importance of women empowerment, US Counsel General Edgard Kagan said, “Equality and empowerment of women are not favours to them — that is the right thing to do. It is a cause that both Americans and Indians are passionate about and is one of our crucial interests.”