Dia Mirza: “Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein Has S*xism In It… I Was Acting With These People”

Dia made her big Bollywood debut with this film opposite R. Madhavan and Saif Ali Khan. The 39-year-old actress spoke about living in a patriarchal society that is ‘largely led by men’.

“People were writing, thinking and making s*xist cinema and I was a part of these stories… Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein has s*xism in it… I was acting with these people. I was working with these people. It’s crazy. I will give you small examples. A makeup artist could only be a man, could not be a woman. A hairdresser only had to be a woman… When I started working in films there were at best about four or five women on any given crew with a unit strength of over 120… sometimes 180 people,” said the Thappad actress.

Dia Mirza added, “We live in a patriarchal society and it is an industry largely led by men. So there is a rampant s*xism. And I think for a large part it is not even conscious s*xism because there are so many men who are writers, who are directors, who are actors, who are not even aware of their s*xist thinking.”