Lakshmi Manchu: Best time for women to be in cinema

This Women’s Day, actor Lakshmi Manchu wants women to use their voices to drive a change

This Women’s Day, actor Lakshmi Manchu wants women to use their voices to drive a change. She says women, today, have many different avenues to speak up, and it is important for them to use them.

Actor Lakshmi Manchu says celebrating Women’s Day is celebrating every woman in the past

“It is the best time for women to be in cinema right now, more than ever, because of social media and the different avenues that a woman can speak out on. It is not like before where it was just one medium and it was completely driven by the patriarchal mindset,” Manchu tells us.

As the cinematic landscape changes for women, Manchu says that it is important for women to take the lead.

“Celebrating Women’s Day is celebrating every woman in the past who had given her life up for us to enjoy the smallest of pleasures so freely,” says the actor, adding, that the present “time is to live in your full power to claim your womanhood”.

“If we don’t stand on the shoulders of the women who fought before us for us to vote or drive or get educated, then we are wasting our birth as a woman,” she shares.

There is one more change in the industry that she spots, and that is the rise of regional cinema globally.

“You have to buckle up. Everything is laid out to you in the most strongest form,” says Manchu, while citing examples of different language shows, which garnered worldwide fame ever since they got onto the OTT streaming space.

“So our writers have a tough time ahead as they really have to match up to world cinema. The story which you are going to tell has to be for a worldwide audience,” she adds.

The actor feels OTT platforms are driving the regional stories to the world, as “they are changing cinema for the entire world, and India’s regional cinema is actually having its moment”.

“The platforms are making Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam originals. They have taken as their own prerogative to really reach out with incredible stories. I’m excited that we are able to tell stories from all parts of India,” confesses Manchu, who herself is exploring diverse stories of the over the top medium.