Madhuri Dixit Nene began her Bollywood career (with Abodh, 1984) when only a few filmmakers were making movies centred on women, and only a few writers were penning scripts with a fully fleshed-out role for their heroine. Fast forward to 2022, and the actor notes that this is a “great time and era for women in films”.

The multiple award-winning actor shares, “When you say a female-centric film today, it’s no longer solely about a girl seeking revenge or being a victim who, in the end, rises above all odds. Now, women are characters in movies. The makers are portraying what women today do in their real lives — go to work, be housewives, take up different professions, excel in sports, and so on. And it’s wonderful because then you [as an actor] get a variety of roles to portray.” 

The Padma Shri recipient notes that the digital medium has a big role to play in bringing women’s stories to the fore. “When OTT came in, people started to see women being portrayed differently on-screen than what they had seen in films. In these web series, women have such well-written and well-developed characters. Writers are writing scripts with modern sensibilities, not driven by a patriarchal mindset,” says the 54-year-old, who is set to make her OTT debut with the Netflix series The Fame Game.

She attributes this change in mindset to the evolving audience’s sensibilities: “Audiences have matured and they want to see women in more important roles, and not just someone who is going to dance or say a few dialogues.”

The Kalank (2019) actor further notes that women are taking charge, even behind the scenes. “I remember when I started working and used to go on the sets, the only females would be me, my co-stars, and the hairdresser. That’s it. There were no women in any of the other departments. When I go to a set nowadays, I see women everywhere — assistant directors, camerapersons, writers, directors, and photographers. Things have changed now,” shares Nene.

Talking about what made her take the plunge into the OTT space, the actor says that she finds the long-format storytelling quite intriguing. “When you start watching a series, it becomes your world, and you are curious to see what happens to every character, as you are living their life at that moment. A movie says everything in two to three hours, but with this long-format content, you have a lot of time to tell your stories and the back stories of each character,” explains Nene, who is playing a superstar, Anamika Anand, in the series.

Asked if she found any similarities between her character and herself, Nene says, “She (Anamika, her role in the series) is a big star, a huge name in Bollywood and has managed to keep her position intact...That’s the similarity, and that’s where it ends. The kind of life Anamika has is very different from the kind of life I have. She has seen the hard side of life, her family dynamics are very different from mine. So, a lot differs between real and reel.”