Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; January 7, 2018)

A few months ago, pictures of Diana Penty wearing an army uniform for her upcoming film Parmanu were doing the rounds. Interestingly, the actress maintains that she’s not exactly playing an army officer in the film.

Speaking on how wearing the uniform during the shoot instilled a sense of pride in her, Diana says, “For me, Parmanu was an awakening of sorts. The film is about a covert mission. It’s sometimes unbelievable that we get to recreate a part of history and live an incident that made history and changed the way our country was perceived. Wearing a uniform gives one a different feeling of pride and I respect those who wear them every day and put their lives at risk for us.”

Diana’s grandfather was in the army. Bring that up and she says, “I had a sense of pride for the armed forces from the time I was a child because of my grandfather. He taught me to salute. He told me that every time I see army personnel, I should salute as a mark of respect. I spent a lot of my school vacations in Devlali because my grandparents lived in the cantonment there. So now, when I got the chance to wear the uniform, although I’m not really playing an army officer, it felt great; almost like art’s imitating life because women are now being trained to be inducted into combat roles in the army.”

Over the last few years, the kind of roles being written for leading ladies has been through a sea-change. The characters have more gravitas and are almost as important as the man leading the cast. Says Diana, “It’s about time this happened. It was all about the male star for so long, and often, women played secondary parts without much substance. I think that was not fair and how long can that have gone on for? Thankfully, I am in this industry at a time when women are increasingly becoming the central characters of their films and are holding fort. Increasingly, stories are being written for actresses to have a chance to play someone who can be celebrated.”