Time for heroes to stand up

Earlier in the day during the trailer launch of Thalaivi, Kangana Ranaut explained why it’s important for popular male actors to lend their presence to female-centric films and said that their support could go a long way in encouraging many filmmakers to come up with newer subjects. It’s a very relevant point she’s made and it only enhances the commercial prospects of the film.

Most male stars remain insecure and refuse to be part of films where women get a better share of the screen space. Even a star like Samantha has to share the screen with a relatively less-popular actor Dev Mohan for Shakuntalam. There are similar instances for other female-centric films too, say Naveen Chandra was paired opposite Keerthy Suresh for Miss India, Aadhi Pinisetty was roped in for another film of the actress, Good Luck Sakhi. Even for the recently announced remake of The Great Indian Kitchen, a Rahul Ravindran had to be brought on board as the on-screen pair for an in-form actress Aishwarya Rajesh. The balance is certainly uneven.

Most actresses don’t mind playing smaller characters in big films for many years, hoping for the mileage the film would give to their careers. Why can’t the men return the favour too, provided they get interesting roles?  The so-called female-centric films often suffer because there’s little star power beyond the heroine to draw crowds to theatres. Naga Shaurya, for instance, took that risk with Oh Baby, and it did pay off well for him. It’s something that many leading male stars in the yesteryear era have done quite often and stars of this generation should also lead from the front.