As an Indian, it would be sort of an anomaly in case you have never come across a man misdirecting his anger on a woman. Well, there is no other way of explaining this behaviour apart from calling it out for being the potent mix of patriarchy and toxic masculinity that it happens to be. That said, at some point or the other in their lives, women from all walks of life have either endured something like this or seen someone else facing the same. Yes, even film stars!
Sara Ali Khan recently opened up about a similar incident that happened on the sets of Coolie No. 1. The film has been directed by David Dhawan and features his son Varun against Sara in the lead role. The actress recollected the incident in a recent virtual trailer launch and shared how she ended up becoming prey to the director’s ire for something that wasn’t even her mistake.
Sara shared, “We were filming ‘Main Toh Raste Se’ when David sir got upset with me and shouted at me because, although I was ready for my shot, I was supposed to tag something on my costume and that was taking time.”
She further added, “He (Varun) was doing some costume business in the van and David sir got pretty upset at him as it was delaying the shoot. So basically, he was angry at Varun but vented on me. That was a bit of an issue, but it is all good.”
Wow, that’s pretty shitty, to say the least. I mean casting your own son in your film is one thing, but getting mad at him, and then insulting his co-star instead is just next level problematic. Someone really needs to remind Mr. Dhawan that it is not the 90s anymore and he really needs to get his act together if he wants to work with the new age stars.
Well, we are really proud of Sara for being vocal about it and calling the director out. Perhaps it’s the best that she could do given Dhawan’s seniority and the fact that she might have felt out of place among the father and son duo. In fact, it was only recently that she talked about the same in an interview with PTI. As super apparent from the film’s trailer, Varun gets a lot of screen time in the film while Sara can be seen only dancing in whatever scanty shots that she has managed for herself.
However, she didn’t project it as a complaint and talked about how she considers herself lucky enough to be working with David and Varun Dhawan and doesn’t feel it was her place to ask for more screen time. “When you’re working with people like Ranveer and Varun, aapki aukat nahin hoti (you are not in a position) to make such comparisons. You’re just thankful that people like Rohit, David sir, Ranveer or Varun are working with you. You just don’t want to compare these things,” she said during the interview.
Ummm, guess we completely missed the plot here and also, the exact moment when Varun achieved the kind of stardom that it is considered a matter of great “aukat” to work with him. But whatever it is, we are glad that she is at least talking about her concerns. The fight will come with time we guess.
Featured Image: Instagram
