SRK & Women Equality

Shahrukh Khan has declared that in keeping with his sensibility that advocates equal status for women, the names his female leads would appear before his name in the credits. Fantastic! Many are showering praise on SRK for his chauvinism. Even some of the female stars of Bollywood have heaped praises on him for his exhibition of equality for women. But then does it really make any difference? First of all, why would a man’s generosity be women’s equality? Then, market dynamics more than anything should decide whose name appears first in the credits, right? Branding principles do not care if the person is male or female; whoever can provide more mileage to the brand does the honors. And finally would SRK take equal or lesser remuneration than his female leads in the film? No, I suppose, because that calls for more than jingoism. I agree it should be again the market that should decide the price that a star commands.


Then, why this hullabaloo over the order of names in the film-credits.

Let the market decide!

But something that is really making a difference to some career-oriented women in this country is the Tata Second Career Internship Program. The program started by the Tata group has given definite advantage to women who want to re-enter into the workforce but find it difficult to find full-time employment or find their previous profession exhausting and not suitable anymore. What is amazing is that on completion of a successful project with TATA SCIP, the women can choose to work with Tata group or in some other company or even choose to become an entrepreneur.

Coming back to SRK's gesture, few women whom I asked how they felt about the same, they told me that they do not need his favour for their status in the society. "If we do well, we will deserve our place and we will get it". Digging the past is not a good idea and may be people have repented for the same but if news reports are to be believed that then SRK had replaced one of his female leads in his home production as a loyalty gesture to one of his then male friends, who is also a big star in the industry.

Equality needs a little more than lip-service, I guess!

I will go with Tata SCIP anyday for that!