Amid The Royals' reception, Bhumi Pednekar says, ‘When women do glamorous parts, they are not taken seriously’
Amid criticism for her looks in The Royals, Bhumi Pednekar shares how female actors face judgement for doing glamorous parts and are not given their due respect
Bhumi Pednekar’s recent web show The Royals received a mixed response, with the actor also being at the receiving end of criticism for her looks in it from a certain section. However, Bhumi Pednekar feels that it is a common trait for female actors that their performances get sidelined because of their looks.
“I feel often, especially women, when they do parts where they have to look glamorous and good, those pieces of work are not taken seriously because there is a very standard feeling that ‘ye to heroine hai, to isko to bas acha dikhna hai’. But uske aage bhi cheezein hoti hain and I kind of want to break that notion with what I've done, that you can look good but you can also have a part where you're not doing just that. A part where you're just not purely objectified but also have an opportunity to kind of dig deep and go into various layers,” she says.
Ask her if she felt caged in rural girl-next-door characters before projects like Thank You For Coming (2023) and The Royals came her way, and the actor agrees. “I feel it’s because I started my career with characters that were very rooted in rural India and the genres were very different. Even though I've actually done romcoms, they were like more in the B and C centers character space. But I've evolved as an actor and as a person. It's not like I was seeking these parts, they've come to me naturally and organically. Jitni shiddat se maine wo parts kare the, utni hi shiddat se maine ye parts bhi kiye hain,” she admits.
Crediting her recent web show for giving her the opportunity to blend vanity and performance, she says, “For romance, you need a certain level of performance and I feel The Royals kind of created that perfect balance of where I looked good but I also got an opportunity to perform, which is something that I'm primarily seeking in any piece of work that I do. If my character doesn't have agency, I won't do the part and I can say proudly that my character had that.”
