Two decades into a career that has moved from Prajapathi to Padmaavat and Heeramandi, Aditi Rao Hydari is less interested in being called a ‘female-oriented’ actor than in retiring the phrase altogether.
A label that limits the story
Hydari’s criticism is not that women’s stories get told. It is that they are still framed as a special category. In a new interview, she said the female perspective has been so suppressed that people keep having to push for it. ‘I wish it wasn’t so effortful,’ she told The Hollywood Reporter India.
For Hydari, the test is whether the material gives a maker a story or a sensation. ‘Do you have a story or do you have sensationalism?’ she asks. A love story, she argues, cannot treat one partner as a replaceable object and still claim balance.
From Bhansali’s worlds to a Sony LIV comedy
The question lands as Hydari prepares for Parivarik ManuRanjan, a slice-of-life comedy releasing on Sony LIV on November 13. It is her first on-screen collaboration with Pankaj Tripathi. She plays Helen, a full-time house help who arrives at Ranjan Dubey’s home and becomes the subject of neighbourhood speculation about their relationship.
The film’s rooted, simple atmosphere is a change of pace, Hydari says, and an opportunity she ‘just grabbed.’ That quiet setting also gives the industry a chance to do something harder: show a man and a woman as full characters rather than ideas.
What good writing looks like
Hydari offered a practical list for actors and creators:
- Stay curious on set and leave ego outside.
- Surrender to the director’s vision while staying present.
- Before pitching or accepting a project, ask whether it has a story or sensationalism.
- Check how female characters are used: as people or as replaceable commodities.
That checklist reframes ‘female-oriented’ from a badge into a warning sign. If a woman-led film still needs a qualifier, the pitch may already be treating one gender as an exception.
Why the wording matters
Hindi cinema has long marketed women-led projects as something other than mainstream. That language shapes budgets, release plans and audience expectations. Hydari’s point is not to stop centring women; it is to stop making that centring the whole story. ‘There need to be more balanced stories in the world,’ she said.
On November 13, the small-canvas comedy will test that idea: can a film about a house help and her employer be discussed for its story, not its gender? For Hindi cinema’s record-keepers, the answer is worth writing down.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter India
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