Director Ratna Pathak slams lack of Bollywood films with all-female leads

Dak Dak star Ratna Pathak Shah has hit out at the rarity of Bollywood films starring only women, saying there were no “real writers” in Bollywood in the 1980s and 90s.

Ratna Pathak, an actor and director known for her versatile personality in Bollywood, her work in English and Hindi stage, television and films, stars in Tarun Dudeja, along with Fatima Sana Shaikh, Dia Mirza and Sanjana Sanghi. She is currently preparing to appear in the director’s road film “Dak Dak”. .

The film depicts the daring motorcycle adventures of four women through the rugged terrain of Leh.

In a group chat with Film Companion, Shah said: “We haven’t had a real screenwriter for a long time, at least in the ’80s and his ’90s, when Hollywood movies were just copies made over and over again and passed off as originals. I just saw it.”

She said some of Bollywood’s most famous films have been copied frame by frame. “Unfortunately, we’ve spent a lot of time complacent making the same thing over and over again,” she continued.

Ratna said the recent OTT boom has started a creative shift, with a greater variety of global movies and shows becoming accessible, especially to younger viewers.

She told Bollywood Hungama: “I drove a bicycle many times in my dreams. I saw people riding bicycles and thought that someday I would ride a bicycle myself, but I still had to ride a bicycle even when I was 65 years old.” I didn’t know it wouldn’t happen.”

Dhak Dhak, co-produced by Taapsee Pannu, Ajit Andhare, Kevin Vaz and Pranjal Kandiya, hit the screens on October 13 and received positive reviews.