Superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Nandita Das, Kriti Sanon and Aditi Rao Hydari among others paid tribute to the courage and strength of being a female on the occasion of International Women's Day, yesterday.
"Often, I wish I was a woman... Then realise I don't have enough guts, talent, sense of sacrifice, selfless love or beauty to be one. Thank you girls," wrote Shah Rukh on Twitter.
"Mother's #WomensDay wish to me "Strive to stay on course with grace, dignity and gentleness." #PowerOfLove #InternationalWomens Day2016," posted Dia Mirza.
Nandita wrote, "Happy #WomensDay! Not as a tokenism, but as a pledge, as a dream waiting to be realised for a more equal and compassionate world."
"When you are your biggest celebration, every day is women's day... So....Let's dance #HappyInternationalWomensDay," wrote Aditi, who has shot for a dance video to mark the occasion.
Kriti said, "I absolutely love being a woman and I celebrate that every single day! P.S. When is Men's Day??"
Actor Sushant Singh Rajput remembered his mother and sisters. "Everything I am, that's good in me is because of u my mother& u my lovely sisters..Thanks for everything & I miss u maa. #InternationalWomensDay."
Actress Jacqueline Fernandes dedicated Women's Day to the ladies in her life. "I dedicate this #InternationalWomensDay to the most important women of my life. I love them the MOST. #MyPillars."
Abhishek Bachchan, meanwhile, said just a day to remember women is not enough. "Women's day. Really? REALLY!! You need a day to realise how important they are and show it? JUST-A-DAY?" To this post, film-maker and his good friend, Farah Khan replied, "I agree!! Don't patronise us plssss!!"
Young B’wood actors feel women should get prominent roles
As Women's Day is being celebrated worldwide today, the young brigade of Bollywood feels that film-makers should offer meaty roles to actresses.
Actor Sidharth Malhotra says earlier actresses used to have promising roles, but in between there was a lull phase. Now, he is happy to see things changing again. "During the time of Raj Kapoor, I think portrayal of women in cinema was confident and bold and it was not seen as cheap and sleazy. Their beauty was admired. Actresses like Zeenat Aman used to wear bikini and they looked elegant." ''In the 90s it went down. But today we have women-empowering scripts. Films like 'Queen', 'Piku' and 'Neerja' speak volumes. It's fantastic that these films are doing well," he added.
Actor Sooraj Pancholi believes that actresses carry a film on their shoulders and are even grabbing eyeballs for their work. "I think earlier women were portrayed in an elegant way, today they are bold and beautiful. We have films like 'Mary Kom', 'Neerja' that are doing well commercially. Today women are the heroes."
Actor Tiger Shroff too feels that the change in portrayal of women on screen today is good thing. "We have lot of interesting and strong subjects in films with women playing the central part. There is a sense of equality that has come today which is great. I hope this trend continues.''
Actress Alia Bhatt said, "The portrayal of women is fine. Women are getting lot of important issues to cover in films...There are lot of films centred around them," she said. "One shouldn't distinguish between male and female-centric films. It should no longer be a shock that women-oriented films are now made again...Women should be an important part of films," she added.