Dhak Dhak star slams scarcity of Bollywood films with all-female lead cast

Dhak Dhak star Ratna Pathak Shah has slammed the scarcity of Bollywood films with an all-female lead cast and said that Bollywood had no ‘real writers’ in the 1980s and ’90s.

The Bollywood’s versatile personality Ratna Pathak – an actor and director known for her work in theatre, television and films in both English and Hindi – is getting ready for her appearance in Tarun Dudeja’s road film Dhak Dhak alongside Fatima Sana Shaikh, Dia Mirza and Sanjana Sanghi.

The movie is about a daring motorcycle adventure of four women through the challenging terrain of Leh.

During a group chat with Film Companion, Shah said, “We had no real writers for a very long time. At least in the ’80s and ’90s, I just saw plain copies of Hollywood movies, being made over and over again, and passed off as original.”

She said that some of Bollywood’s best-known films were frame-by-frame copies. “We unfortunately spent a lot of time being happy to make the same kind of things over and over again,” she continued.

Ratna was of the view that the shift in creativity began recently with the OTT boom, as a more diverse global array of films and shows became accessible, particularly to younger audiences.

She told Bollywood Hungama, “I have driven bikes in my dreams many times. I used to look at bike riders and think that someday I will too ride a bike but I didn’t know that at the age of 65, I will have to ride a bike.”

Dhak Dhak is jointly produced by Taapsee Pannu, Ajit Andhare, Kevin Vaz and Pranjal Khandhdiya that hit the screens on October 13 and getting positive reviews.