Deepika Padukone received quite an eye-opener from Kangana Ranaut a few years ago when she shared the couch with the Queen actress and Parineeti Chopra on a talk show hosted by Aamir Khan. The discussion was about the representation of women in Bollywood and it was Kangana who gave an insightful brief that changed the perspective of Deeps regarding the entire thing.
Deepika Padukone Says I Never Took It Seriously Until Right Now (After Hearing Kangana)
The Gangster actress was in full form as she talked about the demeaning approach of Bollywood when it comes to showing or calling women on screen. Kangana said, "Mein yeh nahi kahati ki aap dark cinema mat dikhaiye aur jo wastavikta hai woh mat dikhaiye. Aap dikhaiye magar uske consequences dikhana bhi bahut jaruri hai. Yeh aap dekhiye ki lack of creativity hai ki sabse jyada negative character, tragic character, dark characters jo Shakespeare ne likhe hai lekin unka influence is so positive. You are scared of darkness."
She further added, "Lekin yahan pe hum ek character ko dikhate hai, ladki ko jis tarah se dikhate hai. Uske liye jis tarah ke words use kiye ja rahe hai. Tandori chicken bulaya ja raha hai. Kabhi uska coat muh mei dala ja raha hai, kabhi uska dupatta khich lega, toh kabhi kuch karega. Woh itrati rahegi doesn't matter."
Kangana Ranaut slammed Bollywood movies that depicted women in this way. When Aamir Khan asked Deepika Padukone who was sitting next to Kangana about her opinion, what the Bajirao Mastani actress said was shocking.
Deepika said, "You know I used to hear ki filmon ka ek bahut bada impact hota hai society ke andar. And I never took it seriously until right now. Until the fact ki we are discussing it now so seriously. Toh shayad ab aage jake mein aur dhyan rakhungi."
Even though Kangana Ranaut and Deepika Padukone do not share a good bonding, over the years Deeps have made some very sensible choices when it comes to representing women on the screen and refrained from doing characters that are abusive or demean the girls.