Adil Hussain on the changing scenario of women characters in Indian cinema

Indian cinema is changing. Yet, over the years, there’s a lack of exploration of female psyche in many of the cinematic narratives. Seasoned actor Adil Hussain who can easily be ranked among very few actors in Indian film industry who is never afraid of using celebrity megaphone to raise his voice for what’s most important says the change is happening but it’s too slow to reckon.
“It’s working very slowly. According to a certain historian, they say it’s a 40,000 years old tradition of patriarchy and it will take a lot of hard work from the men’s side in order to bring women to the centre stage in storytelling, politics and education. We are far away from recognising half the population on the planet earth as equal. It’s very strange that we have not yet managed to resolve this issue which is the greatest discrimination on the planet; it’s not towards blacks or dalits or any other minorities, it is the women we discriminate,” during an exclusive chat explains the versatile actor whose plate is full with coveted parts for critically acclaimed filmmakers, new age independent directors and mainstream filmmakers.
After making his debut in Bengali cinema with Anjan Das’ ‘Iti Srikanta’ in 2004, it took Adil Hussain 11 long years to return to Bengali films with Arindam Sil’s ‘Har Har Byomkesh’ (2015). But we were fortunate to see more of this versatile actor in 2018. His recent Bengali films ‘Mati’ and ‘Ahare Mon’ received a lot of appreciation in many international film festivals. His last Bengali film, Arjunn Dutta’s debut directorial ‘Abyakto’, also garnered a lot of praise from its festival round.