New Delhi: Actor Fatima Sana Shaikh says women in comedies are rarely given much to do. According to her, the female characters in the genre are often taken for granted and don’t get to grow. Strong women are hardly being written in comedies at all.
“We do need good comedy shows. We tend to lean towards thrillers and dark films. And we’re only getting films like that. In general, lighter films are not being made these days,” said Shaikh, while speaking to Variety India, adding that comedy can be funny without making women the butt of the joke.
‘Slapstick is sexist’
The actor also said comedy needs to move away from stereotypes. In her view, jokes about women usually centre on their looks, their sexuality or their humiliation.
“Slapstick is always sexist. We tend to lean towards thrillers and dark films. And we are only getting films like that,” she said.
Shaikh looked back at actors from the 1990s and 2000s, who had more room to play different kinds of characters.
“Vidya Balan’s comic timing is amazing. Juhi Chawla is also great. Madhuri Dixit was so distinctly different from Juhi Chawla. And Preity Zinta was so distinctly different,” Shaikh explained.
Today, she thinks, everyone is boxed into one way of looking and performing. Comedy films too were once made for the whole family. Her own film, Aap Jaisa Koi (2025), was PG-13. However, the actor says most films are A-rated.
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Her co-star Zoya Hussain said she would love to do comedy, as long as the script connects with her.
“I am very funny in life. It’s what you read and feel emotionally curious to do,” she said.
For both actors, the problem isn’t that women can’t carry comedy. They aren’t given enough to work with. Better writing, as per them, would let women in the genre have the same room for personality and growth as men.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)