Kriti Sanon says she was sidelined in promotions by male actor, given smaller room and car

Kriti Sanon has acknowledged, from her own decade-plus experience in the film industry, how it’s designed to favour men over women, whether it’s in the roles written for the screen or how differently the male and female actors are treated on set. She does maintain that there’s progress now, but back when she started out in 2014, the situation was rather bleak.

“When I was starting off, the female character would not be well-defined — What does she do? Where does she come from? Who are her parents? What is her family like? Not much. Sometimes, she’s just the love interest. It’s changing now. Women are choosing meatier parts for themselves. And films were very male-centric. Most of the films even now are. It’s getting better, I’d still say that,” said Kriti.

“And just the little environment on how a man is treated and how a woman is treated. Especially in the beginning, when I was new, I’ve seen it more,” the actor told Lilly Singh.

Kriti Sanon admitted there’s resistance on set when a female actor asks too many questions.

“I’m known for asking questions to my director on set. I’m curious. I’ve always been. That’s how I’ve grown. I’ve never been trained in acting or done theatre. I’d rather ask questions than be absolutely dumb,” confessed Kriti.

“When a man asks questions, he’s really ‘involved.’ So many times, when I suggest something, I’m told, ‘You’re overanalyzing this.’ But when it’d come from the guy, they’d say, ‘Ya, maybe we can do that.’ I said the same thing! I felt that initially,” she added.

Kriti Sanon in Cocktail 2.

Differential treatment on set

Kriti Sanon recalled being given less preferential treatment on a few films, though she’d stand up and not take discrimination most of the times. “Many times, there are small things like the kind of room or car a male actor is given vs the room or car a female actor is given. I don’t care so much about the car and the room, but don’t make me feel less,” argued the actor.

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“Of course, when it comes to senior actors, I totally get it. But when it’s not so senior, even the ADs (assistant directors) have the tendency of calling the girl to the set first. But is he (male actor) ready? Because if he’s not ready, why are you calling me to the set right now? I feel people don’t even realise they’re a little more scared of the actor’s timings than the female actor’s. Sometimes, female actors can be taken for granted,” added Kriti.

Lilly Singh recalled her own incident of being a junior artiste on the set of Anees Bazmee’s 2011 romantic comedy Thank You, starring Akshay Kumar and Sonam Kapoor. When Sonam wanted to take a pee break, she was repeatedly asked to wait for Akshay to show up for their shot together, for the next 20 minutes, only for her to look at Lilly, whom she didn’t even know personally back then, and say, “See, this is a man’s world.”

Kriti argued that she’d just go to the washroom as and when needed, signalling that there’s been a change on film sets over the years, where women actors are putting their foot down. “I feel gender discrimination bothers me for days if I don’t stand up for myself. There have been times when I felt less valued, I reached a point where I did stand up for myself,” she admitted.

Kriti Sanon and Dhanush in Tere Ishk Mein.

Kriti Sanon sidelined in film promotions

Kriti Sanon also recalled during the promotions of a film, the male actor would decide where she should get involved during the promotions. “I found that so weird and almost disrespectful that I felt if you don’t need me for promotions, then you should promote the film alone. Then I just stepped back,” revealed Kriti. But after an earnest request from the director, she did participate in a promotional event because she’s “ethical at the core” and it wasn’t the director’s “fault.” “But a lot of it, I just backed out,” confessed the actor.

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Kriti made her acting debut with Sukumar’s 2014 Telugu psychological action thriller 1: Nenokkadine opposite Mahesh Babu. Later that year, she made her Bollywood debut with Sabbir Khan’s action romance Heropanti opposite Tiger Shroff. Since then, she’s appeared in tentpole films like Rohit Shetty’s 2015 action romance Dilwale opposite Varun Dhawan, and Dinesh Vijan’s 2017 romantic fantasy Raabta opposite Sushant Singh Rajput.

Her other memorable films include Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s 2017 romantic comedy Bareilly Ki Barfi opposite Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao, Laxman Utekar’s 2019 rom-com Luka Chuppi opposite Kartik Aaryan, Farhad Samji’s 2019 fantasy comedy Housefull 4 opposite Akshay, Ashutosh Gowariker’s 2019 period war drama Panipat opposite Arjun Kapoor, and Utekar’s 2021 dramedy Mimi, for which she won her maiden National Award for Best Actress.

Kriti Sanon went on to appear in Samji’s 2022 action comedy Bachchhan Paandey opposite Akshay, Amar Kushik’s 2022 creature comedy Bhediya opposite Varun, Rohit Dhawan’s 2023 action comedy Shehzada opposite Kartik, Om Raut’s 2023 mythological action epic Adipurush opposite Prabhas, Vikas Bahl’s 2023 dystopian action film Ganapath opposite Tiger, 2024 sci-fi rom-com Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya opposite Shahid Kapoor, and Rajesh A Krishnan’s 2024 heist comedy Crew.

Also Read: Launched by Amitabh Bachchan, Chandrachur Singh’s career ended amid a Shah Rukh film shoot

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In 2024, Kriti started her production house, Blue Butterfly Films, which backed her Netflix India thriller Do Patti, directed by Shashanka Chaturvedi, where she was cast opposite Shaheer Sheikh. Last year, she delivered a blockbuster with Aanand L Rai’s romantic drama Tere Ishk Mein opposite Dhanush. Her last appearance was in Homi Adajania’s rom-com Cocktail 2 opposite Shahid earlier this year.