Female actors in the Indian entertainment industry have had to fight tooth and nail to get to where they are today, facing ageism, unequal pay and limited roles. Although the situation has improved, it still favours male actors, claim the veteran leading ladies of yesteryear: Asha Parekh, Tanuja and Hema Malini.

Recently, Parekh, 80, pointed out that senior male actors like Amitabh Bachchan, 80, continue to get better, meatier roles while women are relegated to playing mother or sister roles:  “Today, Mr Amitabh Bachchan, at this age also, people are writing roles for him. Why aren’t people writing roles for us? We also should be getting some roles that are important to the film. That’s not there. Either we are playing mother or sister. Who’s interested?” To this, Tanuja, 79, added, “Or now we’re given grandmother roles.”

On another occasion, actor-politician Hema Malini, 74, who worked with Bachchan in several hit movies including Sholay (1975) and Baghban (2003), said the same thing to Mid-day: “Where are the opportunities today? Even today, author-backed roles are not found for actresses; they are reserved for male actors. He gets such great roles even now; they are written specially for him. But such special roles have not been written for actresses until today. If someone can write a [tailor-made] role keeping me in mind, that would be nice. I think I, too, am capable of performing well.”

The issue of unequal pay also persists for female actors. Tanuja pointed out, “Payment was always a problem — previously and even now. Men have always had a higher standing. Even Hollywood has not been able to do it.” She added, “We can’t blame the guys. We gave them the power to rule.”

Parekh and Tanuja further spoke about the lack of basic amenities when they were young and started working in movies. “We were shy to say that there are no bathrooms. We would be sitting from morning to evening, not going to the bathroom,” shared Parekh.