Radhika Apte, who is currently on a temporary break from work after welcoming her child, recently expressed strong concerns about the growing trend of excessive violence in entertainment and how it affects society. She also said that she is reassessing the kind of projects she wants to do. Sharing her discomfort with the kind of content dominating the market today, Radhika told The Hollywood Reporter India, “I feel quite disturbed, and I have to say this openly. I’m deeply disturbed by the violence at the moment that is selling as entertainment. I don’t want to be bringing up a child in a world where that’s entertainment.”She added that graphic imagery is often unnecessary for storytelling. “If I want to tell the story of a man who chopped people, I don’t need to see the chopping and the horrible things they’re doing to the person. That’s not storytelling. I’ve not seen it ever. The effect of this on society is so large, and I find it deeply upsetting that that’s what’s selling.”
Wants to do fewer, more meaningful projects
Apte admitted that after years in the industry, she no longer feels compelled to take up everything that comes her way. “I’m also a bit bored of acting now in the sense I want to select very few things. It takes a lot. You have to be emotionally available, and I don’t want to be emotionally available to people I don’t respect anymore.”She criticised the lack of effort in writing and development that she witnesses frequently, saying, “People write shoddy scripts. They do one draft and say, ‘Arre, I have a vision.’ I say, no, give it to me on paper. So many scripts, we’ve joined the dots, we’ve put in the work. Characters are half-heartedly written with immense inconsistency and a hundred loopholes. I don’t want to do that anymore.”
Calls out films that demean women
Apte also spoke about her disappointment with how some actresses choose films that undermine women. “I find it disturbing that actresses are doing films that demean women,” she said, calling for collective responsibility. “I think we need to collectively stop doing them. They might be throwing money at you, but you’re rich already. We need to stop because this is very harmful.” For now, the actor is focusing on her personal life and choosing projects that align with her values, both as an artist and as a new mother.
