I lost many movies when I complained against director who slapped me on the set: Padmapriya

Kozhikode: Deeply entrenched gender biases and not market value are the reason for the under-representation of women in cinema, both in the stories told and in their roles in film production, said award-winning actress Padmapriya.

In an industry where 90% of movies fail at the box office, how can anyone claim that male actors are bankable and women are not, she said. "So what stops you then from telling women and transpeople-centric stories," she said to drive home her point of gender biases in the industry.

Padmapriya, who has acted in movies in seven languages and debuted in the Malayalam industry with 'Kaazhcha' (2004) alongside Mammootty, was delivering the third MR Narayana Kurup Memorial Lecture at Government College, Madappally near Vadakara on Tuesday.

Drawing on her personal experience, Padmapriya said when a woman talks about issues, she becomes the issue. During the filming of the Tamil movie 'Mirugam' (Animal) in 2007, director Samy slapped her on the final day of shooting. When she raised the issue with industry bodies, the actress said she lost many movies initially promised to her. "For a long time, I thought I was the issue," she said. Samy slapped her, alleging she "did not emote" well. But Padmapriya went on to win the Tamil Nadu State Film Special Award for Best Actress for her role in 'Mirugam'. She played a tomboyish woman who transformed her violent criminal husband in the movie.

Based on insights from academic research, she said there was a stark difference in the way male and female characters were portrayed in films "Characters with an agency such as executives, military officers, lawyers, and gangsters are predominantly males while women characters are mostly beautiful young girls, or heart-broken or dancers," she said.

She said the subjugation of women is not restricted to movies. It is all pervasive and needs to be fought on all fronts, she said. "Constantly speak up about gender bias, and increase representation of women. If you avoid speaking about micro-aggression, it will come back to bite you," she told the college audience.