It’s a great time for women in cinemas. With movies like Imaikka Nodigal, Kolamaavu Kokila, Raazi, Mahanati, and several other popular films, women are the forefront and are able to shoulder the entire film all by themselves, without the need to have an actor take it forward. Samantha Akkineni, who has two films coming up on September 13th, is all smiles and hopeful for the future.

Breaking the myth that women don’t get to do good roles after marriage, Samantha, literally a few months after her wedding in October last year, went on to feature in big films with roles that were fairly prominent. In 2018 alone, she has featured in three films – Rangasthalam, Mahanati, Irumbu Thirai – and has U-Turn and Seema Raja next week. U-Turn is the Tamil and Telugu remake of the Kannada film of the same name that starred Shraddha Srinath. A woman journalist is out there to investigate mysterious deaths and the film was lauded for its strong portrayal of women and an equally engaging story.

Speaking about how the cinema industry is now towards women, Samantha in an exclusive interview with JFW said:

“It is a great time for women at the films. Whether it’s people accepting me after marriage or female-driven films striking gold at the box office. We are taken seriously and are more than just furniture in the films now. At this point, I would think U-Turn is a great idea. It is coming at a time when our horizons are broadened and I am happy for the women who paved the way for others. Whether it’s Nayanthara or Anushka Shetty, who paved the way for writers to write more female-oriented scripts. Like Raazi or a Kangana Ranaut who are all at the forefront of it all,” she said.

Furthermore, she highlighted how she hasn’t had to dumb herself down on screen since last year, indicating that roles for women have always been restricted to being a hero’s love interest.

“It’s wonderful that in the last year, I haven’t had to dumb myself down to play a character. Which, as a start, is great. In Rangasthalam, there’s a reason why I was kicked about it. Usually when a film is set in a village, her character is often shown as someone who’s weak or the hero is trying to protect her from a child marriage or the heroine is raped. So mostly it’s something along those lines. For this director to write where the girl is the breadwinner of the family and she has studied and she’s so proud of…it was very clear that these kind of roles are coming finally,” she said.

Samantha also spoke about competition in the industry:

“I feel if one heroine grows, others grow too. With CoCo doing well, that means three other actresses get better roles. It doesn’t work that way, putting someone down and making yourself feel better.”

Watch the full video interview here: