All of us have had to come to terms with the way we look: Ratna Pathak Shah

Ratna Pathak Shah often bats for fellow senior female actors who don’t get meaty parts offered to them. In an interview with ‘Film Companion’, Ratna made everyone turn their attention to Waheeda Rehman. She claimed that the ecosystem is content with giving the 85-year-old actor an award but not a role in her potential.

“When I see Meryl Streep (74) and Helen Mirren (78), I feel if they can do it, so can I. I’m sorry that Waheeda Rehman in our country doesn’t get the part that she deserves. What a fabulous woman and an actor she is! All they want to do is give her a little award and stick her in one corner. Really? Give her a good role for Christ’s sake. Keep the award,” Ratna said in the interview.

Previously, Ratna has batted for fellow actor Deepti Naval, who didn’t get the kind of roles she deserved over the years. Deepti was last seen as Kalki Koechlin’s mother in Pushan Kripalani’s ‘Goldfish’ earlier this year.

Waheeda Rehman was last seen in ‘The Song of Scorpion’, which was released in Indian cinemas earlier this year. She was recently conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

Ratna said that this lack of senior female actors in the Indian film industry stopped her from thinking of acting as a long-term gig. “All of us have had to come to terms with the way we look. The fact that your body is changing means that, if I don’t want to fiddle with it too much, I need to accept who I am. The most revealing thing to me, as stupid as it seems, is that I thought acting had a shelf life as a woman.”