Dia Mirza asks why there were no women in Bollywood delegation to meet PM Modi

An 18-member panel, including Akshay Kumar, Karan Johar, Ajay Devgn, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Ritesh Sidhwani and CBFC chief Prasoon Joshi, met PM Modi to discuss issues relevant to the film industry.

Dia Mirza is the latest name to join the growing chorus, asking the reason for women’s absence from the Bollywood delegation of producers and actors that recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss issues faced by the film industry.

Dia Mirza is among Bollywood personalities who have questioned why there were no women in Bollywood delegation that met PM Modi.

On Tuesday, an 18-member panel, including Akshay Kumar, Karan Johar, Ajay Devgn, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Ritesh Sidhwani and CBFC chief Prasoon Joshi, met the Prime Minister to discuss how to take the entertainment industry to the next stage.

 

The meeting of the delegation came under fire on Wednesday for its exclusion of female representation with some activists and filmmakers pointing out that it was 2018 and asking, “Where are the women?” Dia on Thursday took to Twitter to express disappointment over the same and shot a question laced with sarcasm, “This is wonderful! Is there a reason why there were no women in this room?” tagging Akshay in the tweet.

Her post was a retweet of the Gold actor’s post in which he had thanked the Prime Minister for taking out time for the panel. When one of the social media users pointed out that the organisers of the meet need to be questioned for selecting an all-male group, Dia said, “True. Wish one of the men had asked this question. How can an entire Industry be represented only by men?” Another tweeple said why there is a need to compare women with men at all places, the actor shot them down saying the debate is “not about competition”.

“... It’s such a fundamental thing. If we hope to achieve equality we must be included in all conversations! Of course women are doing well. We are doing well despite the fact that we are excluded. And doesn’t that need to change?” she wrote.

Actor Sandhya Mridul also retweeted Akshay’s post and rued, “Great. We women have no issues to discuss. Obviously.” In a year, where India stumbled upon its #MeToo moment leading to heated debates on skewed gender politics at workplace, including showbiz, filmmakers and directors such as Leena Yadav, Alankrita Shrivastava and Guneet Monga, among many on social media criticised the panel for exclusion of women.