I don't think there has been a huge shift. Most of the films still focus on Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, etc. The percentage of films that have someone like a Kangana Ranaut shining in it is really low.
But there are still only certain film genres where a woman can stand out, be heroic, be the centerpiece.
If you go to my Netflix, the sections that they recommend are 'Thrillers with a Strong Female Lead,' 'Comedies With a Strong Female Lead.'
I wish that there were more female driven films, female-centric films being made.
Bascially, I want to do movies wherein even the girl's character actually has a part. If you want me to do glamorous roles, that's fine. But you have to make sure the character is good.
'Hot Pursuit,' 'Pitch Perfect 2,' 'Trainwreck,' and 'Spy' were all being done in the last year. All four of those movies I just mentioned are not rom-coms: they're all about women doing different things.
Very good female characters, that's all we want. It's happening, slow and steady, which I love. Hopefully, it gets a little quicker. Fast and steady, how about that? Either way, we want more good females.
When they make a woman's picture, they treat it like a 'woman's picture.' In the '40s, they didn't treat Joan Crawford movies like that, but as the big movies of their year. I'm upset that there's no 'Terminator' with a woman in Arnold Schwarzenegger's role. Because that would make just as much money.
I love strong women in films that are allowed to play women and not male fantasies.
Sirk was every woman's dream of a director.
I'm making a movie about Wonder Woman, who I love, who to me is one of the great superheroes, so I just treated her like a universal character, and that's what I think is the next step when I think you can do that more and more and when studios have the confidence to do that more and more.
I think Wonder Woman is a very difficult character to crack. More difficult than Superman, who is also more difficult than Batman. Also, a lot of people in Hollywood believe that it's hard to do a big action movie with a female lead. I happen to disagree with that.
Women drive box office.
I would love to grab roles like the ones my mom did in 'Oppol' or the role Kangana Ranaut played in 'Queen.'
People are saying we need more females in our industry and we need more female-driven stories, but that takes the men of bankable star quality to come forward and play supporting roles in those films because, ultimately, that's what the women have always done.
Women perform great in the box office. Audiences want to see lead female characters.
When guys see a movie starring women, they go, "That must be filled with these characters I see in these movies who are such a drag." And that's just bad for everybody.
Predicting what content is going to fly is like looking into a crystal ball. I try not to say, 'Yeah, 'Bridesmaids' opened the door to make more movies about women.' I mean, did it? I don't know; where are they?
Those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences - they are not. Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.
I really want to do roles that have some substance, and I hope writers give us that importance. I can't alone stand up and demand roles like that. It's a collective thing. Writers have to believe in heroines and understand that there's more to a woman than just her curves. It's not that they can't do it. They just choose not to.
When I first came to Hollywood to make 'Mortal Kombat' back in the day, there was this rule that female-led action movies don't work and American studios didn't want to make them.
With films like 'NH-10' and 'Phillauri,' what Anushka Sharma is doing, or what Shraddha Kapoor and Vidya Balan are doing with their films, the industry is changing for women.
The odds of having films made which star women... Everyone still references one movie: 'Bridesmaids!'
I think there is an enormous appetite for great roles for women. You can see that clearly with things like 'The Hunger Games.'
Women want to watch the dark stuff.
