Dixit, the star of films such as “Tezaab”, “Hum Aapke Hain Koun”, “Dil To Pagal Hai”, “Khalnayak” and “Devdas”, on Friday evening participated in a session titled “The Journey of Women in Cinema”, which kickstarted the 2025 IIFA Weekend.
“For the women, they have to prove themselves time and again and to say that we are equal and we can draw an audience, but you have to prove it every single time. And yes, there is still a disparity,” Dixit, who most recently featured in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” said.
“It’s like pushing the envelope every time, a little bit more, it’s like baby steps. We still have to go a long way to go to achieve parity. We have to kind of work every day towards it,” she added.
Monga said people needed to take more chance on women artistes.
“There is clearly a pay gap, there is clearly a difference and women have to do it 10 times to be doing it once… It’s very hard, but I just feel like I genuinely want male actors to answer this question.
Giving the example of “Stree 2”, which she said is the highest-earning Hindi film, Monga said more opportunities should be created for women.
“There are full possibilities of creating those moments again. One needs to take more chances and to be able to do that. And there is no shortcut to doing more,” she said.
Dixit said every film she did in her career had very strong female characters.
The actor said “Mrityudand” was one of the films she particularly enjoyed because it featured her in a strong role.
“I was very fortunate to get characters that were very strong, strong women—whether it was ‘Beta’, ‘Dil’, ‘Raja’, ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’, or ‘Mrityudand’. I mean, if there was one film that I really enjoyed making, it was ‘Mrityudand’,” she said, adding that the movie pushed the envelope for her as a woman.
Dixit said people used to consider her to be the “baby of commercial films” and that’s why they advised her against doing the film.
“Mrityudand was considered to be an ‘art film.’ And the two were like separate things — you couldn’t merge them. And I said ‘no, I want to do it because it’s a great role’. It’s about women’s empowerment, it’s about a woman standing up and speaking for herself,” she said.
Dixit also said that earlier in her career, the only women on set were the actors and hairdressers.
She said there were very few women directors and Sai Paranjpye was the only one she knew at the time.
“Now, when I came back (from the US) and walked on to the sets, there were women in every department — ADs, DOPs, writers and more directors than before. Women are everywhere, which I think is very heartening to see, and it’s a big change,” she added.
Monga said there is still a lot to be done as statistics point towards disturbing facts about women in cinema.
“Less than three per cent of women in cinema are directors. Less than nine per cent are in the crew. There is a disturbing stat I want to share is that everybody tries to make low budget films with female DoPs.
To be hosted by Karan Johar and Kartik Aaryan, the ceremony will see special performances by Shah Rukh Khan, Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan.
