‘Someone had the guts to…’

Kriti Sanon and Alia Bhatt

At the 69th National Film Awards presented in 2023, Kriti Sanon was honoured with the National Film Award for Best Actress for Mimi. She shared the award with Alia Bhatt, who won the award for Gangubai Kathiawadi. At a recent event, Kriti said that the filmmakers should back female-led films with the same conviction as they do with male heroes, and cited the example of how Sanjay Leela Bhansali backed Alia Bhatt-starrer Gangubai Kathiawadi with a grand scale and budget.

Speaking at the CNN-News18 event, the Bhediya actress said, “Take a risk on the subject, not on who’s leading it. If a female-led film… the only one that comes to my mind, honestly, that has been at that scale, at that budget, was Gangubai Kathiawadi. You felt like it was larger than life. It would have been the same-looking film even if a man were leading it. And I felt like the budget, the shots, everything was taken in a larger-than-life way. When someone makes an entry, we call it a ‘hero shot’ – where you make someone look larger than life. That doesn’t normally happen when a female is leading a film like that. So I was very, very happy seeing that. At least someone had the guts to put in that much money on a female-led film.”

Kriti Sanon will be seen next in the intense romantic drama Tere Ishk Mein. A spiritual sequel of the 2013 film Raanjhanaa, the upcoming film also stars Dhanush and is directed by Aanand L Rai. Produced by T-Series Films and Colour Yellow Productions, Tere Ishk Mein is an AR Rahman musical and is slated to release on November 28, 2025. She was last seen in three movies in 2024 – Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, Crew, and Do Patti.

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