For an industry reeking of chauvinism, gender discrimination, it ironically boasts of quite a few outspoken women who have broken every rule to prove that they will live their lives the way they want to. Parvathy is one such example who has always expressed her views in public, then there's the actress who was abducted last year. Despite the threats she received, she went ahead and filed a complaint. She exposed the industry's dirty little ways to the public. And now most recently, breaking her silence, but not for the first time is Rima Kallingal!
She is one actress who is a self proclaimed feminist and wears the tag proudly on her sleeve. For her wedding in 2013, she refused to wear gold as a sign of protest against the dowry system. For her it has always been about using her influence as an actress to change the mindset of the society we all live in. Yet again, at a Tedx Thiruvananthapuram event, the actress broke her silence and talked about gender discrimination, pay disparity, sexism and the unfortunate physical assault incident that happened last year.
Her speech began with the actress declaring first of all - "I am a feminist and my feminism started with a fish fry." She recalls of an incident when her mother while serving the table made sure there was fish fry available for all the male members of the family but not for herself and the 12 year old Rima. She wondered why she wasn't deserving of the fish fry. and that's where her questioning began. She talked about how she was treated to words like compromise, shelf life, adjust while entering the industry. Also, she was asked to dumb down quite often. "We are good at putting up an act, we are always told to be someone else, someone whom society wants us to be. That’s why we have 150 actresses entering the industry every year to act opposite 10 male actors who rule the industry,” she quipped.
She also revealed how she was banned by the Theatre Owners’ Union for working in movies and hosting on a television show. She also brought up the shocking incident that took place with one fo the actresses from the industry last year. Once again, the actress has the used a credible platform to speak up and give them some serious food for thought.
Kudos to Rima Kallingal for speaking up with courage and for taking off the blinders and making people see, the real bitter truth.
