Actors must be sensitized about on-screen gender-based violence and its impact on audience: Varun Grover

 Mumbai: Noted scriptwriter, stand-up comedian and filmmaker Varun Grover has said that actors must be sensitized about on-screen gender-based violence and its impact on audience.

   There is a lot of violence in our films and a lot of it is depicted against women, he said while speaking at ‘Fursat Mei Serious Baatein’ an event organized by Breakthrough in Mumbai. 

   The noted scriptwriter, stand-up comedian and filmmaker, who has collaborated with NGO Breakthrough, said there are times when the script demands it but filmmakers and content creators need to take proactive steps to sensitize actors about scenes involving violence.

   “There are intimacy coordinators today who choreograph intimate scenes in films and shows, inform the actors what they are going to do and how it will be done. Similarly, we need experts to choreograph and coordinate scenes involving violence and its impact on the audience so that violence in our cinema does not become a medium for normalizing it,” Varun,'' he said.  

   “Violence against women both in reel and real world is a serious issue and needs to be discussed. In my conversation series with leading actors and directors from the industry, I will be posing them questions on the portrayal of violence in their films, do they find it problematic too and how they would like to change this,” he added.

   ‘Fursat Mei Serious Baatein’ is a series of conversations hosted by Varun Grover where he speaks to leading writers/ filmmakers from Bollywood to explore and start discussions around the negative impact of normalizing violence, particularly against women.