Lara Dutta Bhupathi: Stories on OTT are depicting real women of today

Unlike the theatrical medium where we still see far and few women-oriented projects, the digital medium has offers its audience a plethora of shows that are dominated by key female characters. Be it Aranyak starring Raveena Tandon, Aarya headlined by Sushmita Sen, Heeramandi which focused on a group of women from a certain era, or Ranneeti: Balakot & Beyond, featuring Lara Dutta Bhupathi to name a few, all these shows have powerful women leading the way.
Talking to us about what drew her to this medium, Lara Dutta Bhupathi says, “I think there is far more freedom within this medium and here, we are actually depicting real women of today. Otherwise, you were playing into a formula-driven form of storytelling.”
Lara says, “Today, you can project women who are manipulative, powerful, diabolical… all kinds of shades without resorting to just playing goody two shoes or playing the self-sacrificing woman on screen. For any actress who is worth her salt, this is a wonderful challenge and a blessing at the same time, to be relevant at this point and be able to portray characters like these.”

Lara is confident that the success of such shows will only inspire and encourage filmmakers to experiment with subjects like these for theatrical releases as well. She signs off saying, “Today, you have incredible actresses like Neena Gupta and Ratna Pathak Shah, who are performing so well on screen. These are some fabulous women,
who are playing their age on screen. It is fantastic that you have representation across ages for women in our cinema now.”