'People need to watch female-oriented films for the actresses to demand equal pay': Radhika Apte

Radhika Apte, who is receiving rave reviews for her performance in PadMan, on why speaking your mind is a great idea. never mind the odds

How do you tell a complex story in Bollywood? More often than not, you don't. Like most 'commercial', 'mainstream' film industries in the world, Bollywood thrives on tales with well-defined binaries. Amid the black and the white, it's grey that has often, if not always, got a royal snub. In a world that has a frugal appetite for the ambiguous, where does an actor fit in?
Rather, must s/he fit in?
The past few years has seen the emergence of a new crop of actors who are slowly and steadily challenging status quos in Bollywood. They're as invested in essaying complex, author-backed roles as they are in portraying the conventionality of everyman and everywoman. In several ways, Radhika Apte has been the poster girl for this brigade of actors. From essaying the role of a woman trapped in an abusive marriage in Parched to living practically every inch of a protagonist suffering from agoraphobia in Phobia, her body of work has been as diverse as it has been interesting. Accolades have also come for her recent release PadMan, based on the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, the Tamil Nadu-based inventor who revolutionised menstrual hygiene in rural India by developing low-cost sanitary pads.
Interestingly, Radhika, who has often been vocal about her liberal positions on social issues, essays the role of the protagonist's wife, who's rather embarrassed about her husband's efforts. "I am the polar opposite of her in many ways and that's one reason why Balki (the director) wanted me to play the character. I remember even while doing it, I would get so frustrated because to have such blind faith in traditions is just so sad," she says.
The discomfort has led to a performance that is now receiving a thumbs up from critics and audiences alike, with noted Guardian reviewer Peter Bradshaw calling her performance, as well as that of the film's leading man Akshay Kumar, "likeable and heartfelt".
Today, Radhika Apte is known for two things that Bollywood does not easily afford to the proverbial 'outsiders': taking on challenging roles in a diverse range of films and speaking her mind. While there is no doubting her acting chops, it is her refusal to sugarcoat hard truths that is refreshing. Be it speaking out on the inequality in the Telugu film industry or calling out the innate sexism in Bollywood, trust Radhika to speak her mind. "I know a lot of stories about people - they are not willing to talk about them and I am no one to talk about them. I keep saying that nothing has ever happened to me, but, funnily enough, I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and told her, 'You know, someone joked with me about something and I knew exactly what he meant. I didn't like it, but I didn't know what to say.' My friend pointed out very correctly, 'But Radhika, why didn't you say something?'"
In the post-Harvey Weinstein glamour world, this anecdote reflects a quintessential dilemma of women working in showbiz. "So many times someone gives you a hug and then squeezes your love handles. Or they joke about your body. Or they meet you for the first time, hold you by your waist and place you somewhere as though you're a cup of coffee they're putting from one table to the other. These things make me angry. Sometimes I react, sometimes I don't."
The silver lining is that for every single man who crosses the line, there is someone whose thoughtfulness moves you. Radhika recounts an episode from a press conference recently where she, Akshay Kumar, Twinkle Khanna and Arunachalam Muruganantham - the real Pad Man - were addressing the media. After the conference, there was a photo call and Arunachalam was standing next to her. "He looked at me and asked, 'Radhika, is it okay if I put my hand around your waist when the photos are taken?' I was so moved because it opened my eyes to the fact that we never bother asking these questions. Even I should have asked this question to him, right?"
Radhika has also been fiercely vocal about how, in her initial days, filmmakers down South as well as in Mumbai advised her not to disclose her marital status (she's married to London-based musician Benedict Taylor). "Once, it was a Bollywood director. I met him at a party and told him how much I liked his previous film. He asked me if I was married. I said yeah. The filmmaker then advised me not to tell people I was married. I will not give you names, but I cannot imagine this director saying this. His image outside is of this cool and liberal person. I told him, 'I have no problems telling people I am married.' He went on to say, 'One day, you will know what I am talking about.' I said, 'I don't want to know.'" The episode later lent itself to a giggle-fest between Radhika and husband Benedict.
For someone who has worked across different film industries (from Marathi to Telugu and Malayalam to Bengali cinema), Radhika's filmography boasts a healthy mix of arthouse (Antaheen, Manjhi, Gho Mala Asla Hava, Parched) as well as commercial cinema (Badlapur, Kabali, PadMan). One wonders if it is a conscious decision to strike a fine balance between the two kinds of cinema. "You know, sometimes, you're just so bored that you want to do something that will make you excited and inspired. Sometimes, you're tired of that and you just want to earn money. Sometimes, you're in the mood to listen to your agent to try to do something that has more commercial viability. Yes, there were some films that were ridiculously not my cup of tea," she says. " But I had reasons to do them. At that time, I had taken a huge loan and wanted to pay that off. I was very grateful for those films. But I haven't compromised much in life."
There is considerable truth in that claim. Actor Gulshan Devaiah, with whom Radhika has worked in the adult comedy Hunterrr, says that she has honed her craft through years and years of theatre. "Thus far, I don't think she has been in any mould. As an artist, I don't see corruption in her work. I think she does work she truly believes in. She was exceptional in a small role in Badlapur. I think she's managing to hold her own in commercial films. The quality of her work is very high. The only thing I would probably be a little apprehensive about, and it's a very personal opinion, is that I hope she does not get overworked. One cannot really blame actresses for that because the film industry is such that female actors are believed to have short shelf lives. This idea is always perpetuated everywhere in the world when it comes to the entertainment industry and, of course, that needs to change."
Mumbai-based film writer and filmmaker Shaikh Ayaz says that a spate of female-oriented films has ensured there's space for "offbeat" heroines like Radhika. "In an earlier era, these actresses would have adorned the art cinema of Shyam Benegal or Govind Nihalani - very much like your Smita Patil or Shabana Azmi. But these days, as the distinction between art and commercial cinema is collapsing, actresses like Apte have a better chance and they can fit across genres easily." However, could there be a danger of being typified as the indie face? "She has already been billed as an indie face. That's because mainstream Bollywood expects its heroines to be in the mould of Deepika Padukone and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan- tall and statuesque. Women like Radhika are sensuous in their own ways. They are feisty and serve as muses for filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, who like their women to be strong and independent-minded, unlike Bollywood where, no matter who the heroine is, she has to play side dish to Salman Khan. To my mind, Apte and her ilk's continued success is a slap on the ugly face of Bollywood's male chauvinism," he adds.
How does one measure the said success, though? Today, gender pay gap is a burning issue worldwide, particularly in the glamour industry. Recently, actress Michelle Williams slammed the makers of her new film All The Money In The World, claiming that her co-star Mark Wahlberg received a fee of $1.5 million for reshooting scenes for the film after Kevin Spacey was dropped from it, while she received less than $1,000. On the other hand, Deepika Padukone recently admitted to getting paid more than her Padmaavat co-stars Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor. Going purely by this juxtaposition, would it seem Bollywood is faring rather well as far as pay parity is concerned? "It actually stands very badly," says Radhika. "It's not just about Bollywood. It's also about society. Tomorrow, if an Aamir Khan is going to make a film and get you INR 200 crore and another actress is not able to bring in that amount, then Aamir should get paid more. It's logic, right? Now, if an actress can get INR200 crore, then she should get paid equally well. The thing is for that to happen, the society needs to change as well. They also need to go out and watch more female-oriented films for the actresses to demand equal pay."
Radhika says income inequalities become more prominent in small budget, character-driven films. "If someone is playing the role of a mother or a father, they are not inviting crowds over the weekend. Both the actors have worked equal amount of years, both are equally good actors. But the man will still get more money than the woman; I don't understand the inequality there."
Despite taking giant leaps in Bollywood, 'star' is a label Radhika prefers to stay away from. It's not a simple exercise in humility but a conscious choice to stay away from the perils of stardom like "being seen at the airports constantly", "having people do things for you", "doing 200 phone calls a day" or "taking selfies".
If anything, it is the latter that Radhika feels most strongly about - must the measure of a celebrity be a selfie? "I just don't like the obsession. When I saw PadMan for the first time at a screening recently, I was in tears. As soon as the film ended and the lights were turned on, some 10 people jumped on me asking if they could take selfies." She adds she is not necessarily against the act of taking selfies but if there are 100 people around and each person takes 4-5 pictures from different angles, it gets difficult. "Do you really think that's part of my job? Sometimes, I am on the sets when people ask for selfies and I say, 'Sorry. I am in my costume and I am contractually bound.' And then I see my co-actors go ahead and give selfies. I look like a complete fool," she says before bursting into laughter.
Her contempt for selfies, though, has very little to do with her presence on social media where she has 823,000 followers on Instagram and 428,000 followers on Twitter. Today, social media is also the space where fans seek out their favourite celebrities and get a slice of their lives. "I do social media because the kind of films I do, they don't often pay me very well. Fortunately, there are other ways of making money because our lives are very expensive. A lot of digital work pays you well. So, to that extent, I enjoy it. Because I don't take it too seriously, I don't get pulled down by that. What social media does is that it makes you live in a bubble. You feel, 'Oh, so everyone likes this.' No, that's not true. Brexit happened, Donald Trump got elected and everyone thought that wouldn't happen because they were following the buzz on social media."
For now, though, Radhika is happy to let her work speak louder than her words.
anamika@khaleejtimes.com