The Indian Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, recently organized a film festival to celebrate International Women’s Day. To mark the occasion, the event featured several women-centric films, including Ghoomer (2023). Notably, actress Saiyami Kher, who played the lead role, traveled to Uzbekistan for the screening.

Saiyami Kher Feels Grateful

Saiyami expressed her gratitude for the continued recognition of Ghoomer. She shared, "It’s overwhelming to see the film continue to get recognition even after so much time." According to her, actors choose films based on passion and instinct, but they can never predict how audiences will react. Therefore, when a film continues to resonate with people, it reinforces her belief in meaningful cinema. Additionally, she felt deeply touched by the warm welcome in Uzbekistan.

Cinema Shapes Society

Saiyami strongly believes that cinema does more than reflect reality—it also has the power to influence it. She explained, "Cinema is a reflection of society, but it also has the power to influence it." Over time, the portrayal of female characters has evolved. Instead of focusing only on “strong women,” films now depict them as real, flawed, and layered individuals. Consequently, this shift helps promote genuine empowerment by showing women in their full complexity.

Hindi Cinema Needs Better Female Representation

Although Hindi cinema has made progress in female representation, Saiyami feels there is still a long way to go. One major issue, she pointed out, is the way female characters are written. Often, they exist only to support the male lead rather than having their own meaningful arcs. Even when a film focuses on a woman, there is a tendency to portray her as either overly strong or entirely helpless. Instead, female characters should be more balanced, displaying both strengths and weaknesses.

Women Can Lead More Than Just Social Dramas

Furthermore, Saiyami emphasized the need to break stereotypes about female-led films. She said, "We also need to break away from the mindset that a female-led film has to be about social issues or empowerment." In her view, women should be portrayed in a variety of roles across all genres, from thrillers and action films to comedies and romance. Additionally, she believes increasing female representation behind the camera would bring more authenticity to women’s stories.

Normalization Is Key

For true empowerment, female-led films should be treated as mainstream rather than as a niche category. Saiyami stated, "We need to stop treating female-led films as different or special." Strong, well-written female characters should appear in all kinds of films, not just social dramas. Moreover, she stressed the need to eliminate the perception that female-led films are a financial risk.

Producers Still Hesitate

Despite these necessary changes, securing financial backing for female-led films remains a challenge. Many producers and studios hesitate to invest in such projects, fearing they won’t perform as well as male-led films at the box office. Saiyami pointed out that audience behavior plays a crucial role in this issue. While people rush to watch big-budget films starring male leads, they often hesitate when it comes to female-led films. Therefore, she believes that changing this mindset is essential. She concluded, "The more commercially successful female-led films become, the easier it will be to get them made."

The Road Ahead

Ultimately, Saiyami’s experience at the Uzbekistan film festival reinforced her belief in meaningful storytelling. Moving forward, she hopes female-led films will become more common across all genres. However, for real change to happen, both audiences and the industry must actively support these films without hesitation.