Actor Pooja Hegde has worked with some of the biggest male superstars in the country, across languages. She made her Hindi language debut opposite Hrithik Roshan in the film Mohenjo Daro, before going on to work with Vijay, Prabhas, Salman Khan, Jr NTR, Mahesh Babu, Allu Arjun, Ranveer Singh, Naga Chaitanya, Ram Charan, and most recently, Shahid Kapoor. In an interview, she opened up about the sexism that she has faced on film sets in her career, and said that she’s incredibly happy when she reads news about a female actor charging hefty sums of money. She also confessed that she will be more selective about the projects that she signs on to going forward, and, when asked to name her favourite male co-star, she chose to name a woman instead.
In an interview with Filmfare, Pooja was asked if she’s ever had trouble with a male co-star, considering her vast experience with them. She said, “It’s there in all the industries, but to different degrees. Some of it is very on the face, and some of it is very subtle. It’s the little things, like how the male actor’s vanity van would be parked right near the set, while us, with all our lehengas and all, will have to walk all the way… Sometimes, I’m like, ‘Listen, ya, think about us, we’re in such heavy costumes, and we’re dragging ourselves to reach our vans’.”
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She continued, “This is subtle sexism. It could even be your name not going on a poster. Sometimes, the credit is not given to you, even if it’s a love story. We all have to realise that it’s a collaborative effort to make a film.” Pooja said that she has worked with a lot of male stars who’ve ‘earned the right’ over decades, but she finds herself being treated like a second-class citizen even on sets where she’s ‘technically the bigger star’. Pooja was then asked about her experiences with ‘massive stars’ like Prabhas and Salman Khan, and if she has learned anything from them, or if she looks up to any of them for the work they’ve done and the career they’ve cultivated.
She said, “Anushka Sharma is someone I really love. I relate to her the most, because she hasn’t had any backing. I think our personality types are similar, because she doesn’t like to go for parties, and I feel like, ‘Thank god, there’s somebody else like me’. In the West, Scarlett Johansson has done some incredible work. She does the Avengers movies, but she has also done indies like Lost in Translation and Marriage Story.” The only male co-stars that Pooja praised were Vijay, Jr NTR, Allu Arjun, and Suriya, with whom she will appear in the upcoming film Retro. Pooja said that she doesn’t fight for ‘petty things’ like bigger hotel rooms or nearer vanity vans.
Pooja said that she would rather fight for her co-star to be actually present on set for emotional scenes, because often, they deploy body doubles in their place. “Stuff that impacts the quality of my work, that I want to fight for,” she said.