“Zero Tolerance For Gender Prejudices,”  Says Prerna Arora Bollywood’s First Successful Female Producer

Breaks Patriarchal Taboos

 In  just two years Prernaa Arora has established herself among the foremost film producers of Bollywood with  two back-to-back hit Rustom and Toilet: Ek Prem Katha to her credit, and a third PadMan about to be unveiled to the curious public.

It’s not such an easy journey to make for a woman in Bollywood  even if Prernaa’s fatherVirendra Arora was a producer to reckon with.

Prernaa had to start from scratch. There were no successful female producers before her. Except maybe Shabnam Kapoor.

“Yes I’ve heard of her. This is a very tough job for a woman. There are no female  producers per se, unless you count the actresses like Priyanka Chopra and Anushka Shrma who have turned producer after attaining success as actors,” observes Prernaa.

Prernaa had no such transitional plans. “It was straight to production for me.Luckily I started with a  superstar as disciplined and generous as Akshay Kumar Sir in Rustom. It can’t get any  better than him.”

Now when she is ready to release her  third consecutive  film with Akshay in the leadPrernaa looks at the future not as a female producer but as  direct competition for the otherBollywood producers.

“No one is going to be extra-kind to you  just because you are a woman producer. It’s all for himself  or herself in the entertainment industry.And I’m proud to say I am making my way through my chosen profession without having to play  the feminine card,” says Prernaa who has no patience with gender discrimination.

“One hears so  much these days about women in the entertainment  business being exploited . Of course there are Harvey Weinsteins in  Bollywood too.One of  my ambitions is to make our film industry a safe place for women to work in,” says Prernaa dreamily.

A part  of  her dream scheme to  eradicate gender discrimination is to do  films that address themselves to the issue of discrimination. “PadMan is about menstrual hygiene, a topic that a large population of our women shy away from addressing. We hope to open  up a  debate, eliminate  the inhibitions that  obstruct a  healthy conversation on  the subject of sanitary napkins. Thanks  to the  presence  of Akshay Sir in PadMan and Balki Sir as our director, so many known faces have come forward  to promote our cause .This the kind of cinema I want to do.”

On the anvil are projects with Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh, Varun Dhawan, ShahidKapoor…

“And why are  you forgetting Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and  Deepika Padukone the female superstar  of Bollywood ? They are both playing the lead for  my productions in solidly-written  films that do justice to their  presence. I’ll never produce a  film where the women is weak whiny or wimpy. Because that’s not the way I am in real  life,”  says Aroraemphatically.