Misogyny is so prevalent that ‘Animal’ doesn’t seem odd: Bonna Mirza

Prominent actress Bonna Mirza has recently commented on the misrepresentation of female characters in regional and Indian films, connoting the recent wave of criticism faced by the Sandeep Reddy Vanga film “Animal”.

In a discussion arranged by the 22nd Dhaka International Film Festival committee, with female film directors at Dhaka Club’s Samson H Chowdhury Centre on Monday, popular actress Bonna Mirza said, “‘Animal’ is not the only film, where female characters were misrepresented and suffered from a misogynistic outlook. We as audiences also practice misogyny, so it doesn’t often seem odd to us as it has been embedded in our conscience.”

The actress made the remarks in the discussion followed up by an article presentation by independent filmmaker Mehzad Ghalib, titled, “Possibility of Female Driven Content in The OTT Platform in Bangladesh”. Apart from Bonna, the discussion was joined by Dr Ipsita Barat, head of Kolkata’s St Xavier’s College’s Department of Mass Communication and Videography, and Bangladeshi filmmaker Shankha Dasgupta amongst others.

Upon a question regarding the misrepresentation of women from a male director’s perspective in the Bangladeshi web-series,  Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s “Ladies & Gentlemen” by an audience, filmmaker Shankha Dasgupta said, “A director has full autonomy over his film and the message he wants to deliver and as audiences, we have full rights upon what we want to criticise or praise.”

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