1. Home
2. Entertainment

It’s shameful that women have to fight for equal pay: Kiran Rao

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 8/3/2017 1:13:22 PM

Never the one to shy away from calling out prevalent sexism in the society, filmmaker Kiran Rao says it’s a pity that even today women have to “fight” for something as basic as right to freedom and dream. Kiran Rao’s upcoming production Secret Superstar, featuring actor, husband Aamir Khan and his Dangal co-star Zaira Wasim, is about a teenage girl Insu becoming a YouTube singing star, albeit a secret one. The girl takes the help of a burkha to hide her identity as her conservative father does not approve of the musical inclination.
Aamir and Kiran have co-produced the film, helmed by debutante director Advait Chandan. At the trailer launch of the film on Wednesday, Kiran was asked how would the film help push real-life women to follow their dreams and what was her personal message to the fairer sex.
The director-producer did not hold back and said that women have been given a second-hand treatment compared to men and they have to struggle to get something, which is served to men on a platter.
“Historically, girls and women have been suppressed. It’s known to all that for 1000 years, women have been given second position. Not in India, but abroad, we saw that even voting rights women got after a long time. We got all kind of rights quite late. All over the world, women have to struggle to get their rights and recognition. If we talk about pay, the fact that women have to fight for ‘equal pay for equal work’ is shameful,” Kiran told reporters here.
She added that the biggest takeaway from Secret Superstar for any girl would be that she should not be scared to “desire” the life of her dreams. “I just want to tell women that the best message through this film is that don’t be scared to dream. Don’t be scared to desire or want things. It’s your right to have freedom, to follow your heart and dreams.”
Secret Superstar releases on October 19.