Better female roles will come with change in mindset: Pankaj

Bollywood veteran Pankaj Kapur feels that though female-centric films are being made in the country today but for better roles for women in the industry, the society needs to change its mindset.
The "Shaandaar" actor said the percentage of women oriented movies is better than what it used to be earlier.
"Today there are certain films being made in which the female characters are of importance. I am not saying their percentage is large but it is certainly better than nothing, especially what it used to be over the last 20-30 years.
"When the mindset of the society will change, new stories will be written that way," he told reporters.

Kapur, 61, feels if there is awareness in the society regarding male-female equality, there will be a natural outcome too.
"If this awareness increases among people, the natural outcome will be that stories will be written that way and female actors will get a chance to do (women centric) characters," he added.

The actor was speaking at a debate on 'Why is laundry a mothers job?' along with wife Supriya Pathak and actress Tabu at an event, organised by Ariel.
Tabu said the kind of films Bollywood produces is in response to the demands of the audience.
"I feel that the audience is a huge deciding factor about the kinds of films being made in our industry. Films are made according to the audience demands, which the producers feel are more commercially viable. So when this will evolve, we will get different kinds of cinema with different kinds of role to men, women."

Supriya said the positioning of women in the society has changed today and young girls are much more independent and confident.
"Change is coming slowly. There is a huge difference between positioning of women today then what it used to be before. Our daughters are much more confident... Lot of things that my generation was told that this is women's job only, we don't tell this to our daughters today. They are independent," she said.