Singer Sona Mohapatra’s recent tweets on the growing “wannabe celebrity culture” grabbed eyeballs. Many assumed it was a ‘dig’ at actor-singer Shehnaaz Gill, as at one point, Mohapatra had called out Gill for supporting #MeToo accused director Sajid Khan. The artiste feels it’s time we move past the “catfight” imagery and address the issue at hand.

Mohapatra tells us, “I’ve been consistent in sticking my neck out for women’s empowerment and fairplay. So, it’s equally important to call out opportunistic women who are happy to compromise whatever little ideals they have to pursue their ambitions of fame and fortune by siding with well-established male sexual predators. It’s not like we’ve ever received something even remotely resembling acknowledgement of their wrongdoings, from men like Sajid Khan or (singer) Anu Malik. When women side with them and play dumb, it’s disturbing.”

She goes on to talk about her tweets being misconstrued to make it seem like a ‘dig’. “If we expect men to do and be better, don’t those standards apply to women as well? To read headlines of me ‘lashing out’, ‘slamming’ or ‘taking a dig’ at another woman is disturbing. It is a cliché of the patriarchal mindset,” says the singer, who recently released a song, Roti Machine.

Amid times of “disturbingly popular music videos” portraying women suffering in the name of love, Mohapatra hopes her latest track can drive change in the narrative around women. “See Dhokha by Afsana Khan (singer)... Women are portrayed as gold-diggers who need ‘shopping’ to be won over or are objectified, while the men have swag. This puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on young men to provide, apart from creating a sick stereotype for women. Roti Machine is one such musical response I put out, where we say that love is a two-way street. You have to give respect to get respect,” she concludes.