‘I had to turn to Hollywood and look at Scarlett Johansson. This is what made the film more interesting,’ said Sanjana
Sanjana Sanghi. File Pic
Hindi cinema has rarely had a slick woman-led action film. Among the few times that it has been attempted, the women have been sexualised in femme fatale avatars, complete with leather outfits. When Sanjana Sanghi stepped into the universe of Om: The Battle Within, she partly expected a similar tonality. The actor was pleased to see that director Kapil Verma had a different vision for his actioner.
“I can’t deny that historically, we have seen very few leading ladies do action. This is only my second film. I can’t deny the trappings that exist. I didn’t have any reference points for the film. I had to turn to Hollywood and look at Scarlett Johansson. This is what made the film more interesting. Kavya, my character, is a full person. In a testosterone driven world, she is an anomaly. She is leading the pack here. The script gave me the responsibility inherently, and I built from there. I didn’t feel the desire to do bigger stunts to feel more important in the story. My director Kapil Verma mounted the story in such a way that the female perspective is important,” she says.
Even as leading ladies are getting meatier roles, the gender bias is evident in the smallest of instances. The first look of Om featured only leading man Aditya Roy Kapur, with no sign of Sanghi. “Of course, it bothered me, and I told Ahmed sir [Khan, producer] I need to be in it. We launched a new poster with the trailer,” she states.