Tanuja and Asha Parekh are called the jubilee stars. Both the actresses carved their own individual niche. While Tanuja is known for movies like 'Anubhav', 'Do Chor', 'Mere Jeevan Sathi' amidst more, Parekh is still remembered for iconic movies like 'Teesri Manzil', 'Caravan' amidst more. Recently, both the actress spoke about their careers, challenges that women faced in the industry, then and now amidst much more in a conversation with Maitri: Female First Collective.
Asha Parekh added, “For woman those days it was like if they got married, their career was finished. Now it is not so. So the hero’s maybe 50 or 55 years they are working with 20-year-olds and that is acceptable till today.”
Parekh confessed that while male actors like Amitabh Bachchan are still getting important roles, they aren't. She said, "Today, Mr Amitabh Bachchan, at this age also, people are writing roles for him. Why aren’t people writing roles for us? We also should be getting some roles which are important to the film. That’s not there. Either we are playing mother or sister Who’s interested?” Tanuja added and said, "Or now we're given grandmother roles."
The actresses also spoke about the lack of basic amenities when they were young and started working in movies. "At that time, we were very shy to say there are no bathrooms. Modern studios just had one bathroom for everyone and they were horrible. We would be sit from morning to evening, not going to the bathroom. Sanitisation should be the priority of every place."
Tanuja added, "Today women can say, we don't have enough bathrooms, we could say that. That was the way we were taught to be – that don't talk. Parekh expressed, "Now we have vanity vans, so today even now we have 15 girls are there in the crew, it's not a problem. But at that point, we didn't have enough toilets."
The yesteryear actresses further confessed that, "Payment was always a problem – previously and even now. Men always had a higher standing. Even Hollywood has not been able to do it."
Asha Parekh recently won a Dadasaheb Phalke award. Meanwhile, Tanuja was last seen in 'Modern Love Mumbai'.
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