Women with a voice - Parvathy Thiruvothu & Deepika Padukone.

These past few weeks, my Twitter feed has been a party that I never want to leave. There’ve been heaps of compliments for both Deepika & Parvathy alike. The Bollywood fandom has always been much more vocal about their appreciation towards actors compared to any other Indian Movie fandoms so I’m thrilled that they’ve taken notice of Parvathy and her body of work. At the same time, it warms the cockles of my heart to see Parvathy promote Deepika’s Chhapaak. This is so important. So important.

While all of these is happening on one side of the fence, the other side of the fence is filled with people saying that Deepika in Chhapaak can never compare to Uyare. Has Chhapaak released? No. Has anyone watched it? Other than Laxmi & Alok, I doubt so. So why is there the need for such negativity around the film? I love both the actors with all my heart - they are the reason why I watch films but that’s not the reason why I’m condemning such a behaviour. This is bigger than that. It’s bigger than you not liking Deepika and using Parvathy as a pawn to project your hate.

Two strong, beautiful, intelligent women have made (good!) films on a subject so relevant. Two of the most powerful actresses in the respective industries. Why can’t we take a moment to celebrate them, their choices without having to put down the other? I’m not saying that you can’t compare the films, the acting etc. Yes you obviously can. You can after you watch the film. You can still do that without having to drag one actor to praise the other.

So if you’re having a hard time saying nice things, here’s a little list to fuel your next few tweets so that we can stop giving out “national awards” like mithai on social media.

Deepika Padukone. Parvathy Thiruvothu. What’s up with them?

These two gals have been torchbearers for very pertinent social issues. Deepika, for example, has championed the cause of Mental Health ever since she came out with her story. Not to forget the constant taunting she gets by random people because they think talking about your battle with depression “is all a publicity stunt”. I mean come on, you’re talking about THE Deepika Padukone. Her name is the biggest “publicity” anyone can get. Try again. Parvathy, on the other hand, has always propagated the need for socially conscious filmmaking. In December 2017, she was harassed (read: receive death and rape threats) online for speaking up about a film that glorified sexual harassment. So yea, I’m obviously overjoyed seeing the amount of support & love she got after FC Adda when she called out the FILM Arjun Reddy (Read: NOT a personal attack on the actor).

Remember when a mob was after that actress and threatened to harm her? Oh wait. Not just one. Two actresses. Just a friendly reminder that we live in a world where people can publicly threaten to cut off the nose of one of the biggest actresses in the country and verbally abuse and threaten another actress incessantly till she’s driven to quit social media. I’m not saying I totally understand what they go through because I don’t think anyone but them would know the trauma. I’m just saying that it’s already a shitty world for women to live in and the least we could do to for people who actually walk their talk and give us quality content is to think twice before you post some 280 character rant on social media. In all honesty, this isn’t even just about Parvathy and Deepika but every woman out there who has to basically *survive* each day. If we start supporting actors and movies that produce quality content, maybe one day we will stop complaining about the 100th instalment of Housefull and movies that glorify extra martial affairs.

I know I will always be super damn proud of these two, their work and their movies because girls, you’re worth it 🤟🏽

Watch Uyare on Netflix and Chhapaak on 10 January 2020. Thanks ✨