Is Bollywood ready for gender-neutral awards? Ayushmann Khurrana-Parineeti Chopra DEBATE on the idea!

This year the MTV Movie & TV Awards created history by opting for gender-neutral performance categories. Emma Watson won Best Actor award for Beauty and the Beast, while Millie Bobby Brown took home the trophy for Best Actor in a TV show for i.

In her speech, Emma applauded the move saying, “To me, it indicates that acting is about the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and that doesn’t need to be separated into two different categories”. The younger generation of actors seems to be keen on this idea. Like the raging debate on pay-disparity between actors and actresses that rocked Hollywood and trickled down to Bollywood, it’s only a matter of time that the question of gender-neutral awards finds its way to B-Town. We recently asked B-Town’s young actors Ayushmann Khurrana and Parineeti Chopra their thoughts on this very issue. The two actors took opposite sides.

FOR Ayushmann Khurrana

Art is about gender equality
“I may differ on this,” says Ayushmann, who supports merging the two categories and acknowledging actors for their work based on the genre of the movie. He adds. “It’s art. In art, there shouldn’t be any gender difference. It’s not sports. It’s not a game like tennis, which has different formats for men and women. In art, we always talk about gender equality. I think it’s fair to have gender-neutral awards.”

The grammar needs to change
The actor however, points, that the way films are made will need to change if we are to constitute such awards. “I think the grammar needs to change. Maybe our films need to change or we have to be less patriarchal. In that case, both (the actors and the actresses) are doing action, or both are dancing or singing. In acting too, there isn’t a Best Action Star, an actor is an actor.

AGAINST Parineeti Chopra

It’s fair to have separate categories
Parineeti feels that keeping in mind the kind of movies we make, it’s right to judge and award actors and actresses in separate categories. “My gut says that the tradition seems to be fair — of having male and female actor categories, because the kind of roles that we play are different, right? So the performances are always different. So when we are playing the same game...supposing all the actresses, then it’s easy for us to choose a winner out of that. Internationally, sometimes it may work, but in Bollywood films the hero is very different from the heroine. So, I don’t know how easy it is to choose one between the two.”

It’s just different!
Parineeti feels that it wouldn’t feel natural to club both actors and actresses in the same category. She points out, “From my own films if I take an example, I don’t think you can put Ajay Devgn and me in the same category when I am doing Golmaal. It’s not right or wrong, but somehow it just feels different. Yes, it’s art, but Bollywood films’ grammar is very different. I feel that they cannot be put in the same bracket. But I think in singing it can be applied. However, it’s not applicable to our films.”

Parineeti and Ayushmann on the dangers of hiring actors on the basis of their social-media following, which is now a trend in Hollywood

Earlier this month, at a royal reception for the British Academy Award winners, hosted by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson said she was extremely worried about the recent trend of Hollywood studios casting actors based on their popularity on social-media platforms. 
She said, “We’re casting actors who have big (social media) followings so the studios can use their followings to sell their movies. The actors are becoming attached in the sort of business way to their social media profiles, and I think that’s a disaster.” By doing so, studios expect higher footfall when their movie hits the theatres. 
While B-Town actors have been using their social-media accounts to promote the brands they are endorsing, it isn’t being looked as a tool to cast actors as 
yet. However, a recent report suggested that a young actress wanted to be given higher pay package pointing to the astronomical number of followers she has despite few hits to back her demand.

It’s scary!
Both, Ayushmann and Parineeti, 
agree with Thompson on the issue. Says Ayushmann, “It’s ludicrous and scary. If you are casting someone it should be on the basis of the character and the caliber of the artist. It is not something  like you are paying someone for digital endorsements or for digital influencing. That’s something different. But in cinema, how can you cast someone on the basis of the number of followers?”

Buying followers
“Today, you can buy followers. I know someone who has done this. In that case, how do you go by the number of followers one has? What if someone is not on social media? How do you gauge their popularity? Then that person can’t become an actor?” Ayushmann questions. In the world of social media, not only can followers be bought, but trends can be also be sponsored. That’s often the route brands or production houses take when a new product is about to be launched or a movie is up for release.

Digital influencing is cool
Pari agrees with Ayushmann, and says, “Digital influencing I am fine with. I have done a lot of digital campaigns, that’s because I have a certain number of followers. That makes absolute sense. But films cannot be compared to that at all. Somebody could have joined Instagram yesterday, they may not be able to compare with the followers I have for three years.”