I have watched this interview a 1000 times

Mallika Sherawat.  The whole thing - especially 3:50 ONWARDS.  She's first and foremost - a Bollywood actress and not a "popular" one  - thus automatically "not respected" as a woman, not to mention she's one of the first actresses in Bollywood to have kissed on screen.  Her first movie required her to kiss more than 10 times in a Bollywood movie - breaking for sure some sort of record.

People dismiss beautiful women so easily, not to mention ones that initially displayed their sex appeal as one of their plus points.  It makes me inherently sad to have people judge others' intelligence based on their beauty or sex appeal.

Mallika is a rare breed - especially for "Indian" culture.  Independent, presumably sexual - at least comfortable with portraying sensuousness on screen, and has acted in international films opposite Jackie Chan and in other regional films besides Indian cinema.  She came under fire a while ago due to her comments on women in India.

Note that this was at a time that "India's daughter" Jyoti Singh who made International headlines and was treated in Singapore was brutally murdered.  Jyoti was raped and ultimately died due to her injuries.  Jyoti was raped,   by a metal rod, desecrated, and horrifyingly more.

When Mallika came back to India and was questioned by a journalist she for once in an actresses; life actually had facts to back up her statement, did not try to be politically correct, had 100% the truth in terms of what she originally said and why she said what she did. In short - she was smart, intelligent, spoke beautiful hindi and this is one of the truest and most intelligent things I've heard from this industry.

Said with PASSION, strength, etc.  I cried re-watching this as I have many times before (I'm obviously still tearing up.)

Lines: "Aur aurothon ki tarah main bhi chup reh-jaon? (...)  1000 men to 700 women, Khok mein hi marh dehtey hain, aur is desh mein Devi ki pooja ki jathi hain aur female bachey ko khok mein mardetein hain.'


It's actresses like Mallika who 1st of all SPEAK THE PRIMARY LANGUAGE OF HER COUNTRY who can make a change in society in India.  Women, especially those pursuing a career in one of the most sexualized acting industries in the world often don't speak out for fear of a backlash.  I'm still in tears copying what she said in my head.  Moving.