Women have been playing waiting game for long: Sonakshi

Mumbai, Dec 9 (IANS) Actress Sonakshi Sinha feels that women have been playing the "waiting game" for the longest time as they are always waiting for permissions, validation, acceptance and approval.

"I want to live in a world where we, as women, are able to choose. We have been playing the waiting game for the longest time. Women are always waiting to be protected, rescued, for permission, validation, acceptance and approval," Sonakshi said here on Friday at a short film festival based on women's safety and empowerment.

"We live in a country where we worship Goddess Laxmi, Saraswati, Kali and Durga but we eliminate girl child before she sees the world. I don't want to live in a world like that and honestly, an initiative to end gender-based violence is a commendable effort," she added.

Sonakshi, who has portrayed strong female characters in films like "Akira", "Force 2' and "Noor", says that being an actor gives her the means to make a difference.

"I am a part of the Hindi film industry, and being an actor gives me a voice, and perspective gives me ways and means to make a difference."

"Being here, I am really happy that so many people have taken the effort to make these short films and showcasing there films over here. Through this medium, we can reach out to so many people across the world and create some sort of awareness."

Sonakshi admitted that she was accused of doing a lot of roles in films that were regressive.

"Fingers are always pointed at me. Nobody pulled up the writer who wrote the script or the director who made the film. It was always me and I used to be defensive about it thinking why this is happening to me is because I am just an actor but then I realised that may be, in some way they are right and maybe I shouldn't be doing what I am doing," she said.

"May be I should be doing something that doesn't portray me as a damsel in distress which is why I started doing films like 'Akira' where I played a martial artist who was able to take care of herself.

"I did a film called 'Force 2' where I was a RAW agent. I did a film called 'Noor' where I played a working woman and honestly, all these roles empowered me in some or the other way," she said.

Sonakshi was last seen on the big screen in this year's film "Ittefaq".