Five Powerful Statements From B’wood Roundtable By Vidya, Ratna

Zaira Wasim, Ratna Pathak, Vidya Balan, Bhumi Pednekar, Swara Bhaskar get candid with Rajeev Masand.

From left: Zaira Wasim, Ratna Pathak, Vidya Balan, Bhumi Pednekar, Swara Bhaskar

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

What do Ratna Pathak Shah, Bhumi Pednekar, Vidya Balan, Swara Bhaskar and Zaira Wasim have in common? Not only did these actors give us some of Bollywood’s finest performances this year, but they’ve also given us some beloved and instantly relatable characters.

The stars sat down with film critic Rajeev Masand for his annual Bollywood roundtable chat. As he lauded them for picking on-screen characters that deal with a host of societal problems – like sexism, ageism, misogyny, parental pressure, inequality and insecurity – Vidya Balan said that male actors have been playing the same roles but women get to portray a range of emotional shades.

Ratna Pathak Shah agreed, saying: “We don’t need to be Gal Gadot, who is doing everything that the guy would do, except that she is a pair of breasts. We are telling our stories, the way we see our world”.

While Bhumi spoke about how men don’t have the courage to experiment, Swara underscored the fact that a section of the audience is now hungry to watch their own stories on screen.

Here are the darndest things that the spunky leading ladies of B-Town said on the show.