Cinema VinesVeteran actress Kitu Gidwani, whose career spans more than four decades across film and television, has publicly criticized Bollywood for its “fake” nature and the way it treats artists, especially older women. In a recent interview with Screen, the actress highlighted the industry’s lack of royalties, the absence of intellectual property rights for performers, and the limited, stereotypical roles offered to women as they age.
Gidwani, who first appeared in the 1984 film Holi and rose to prominence with the Doordarshan series Air Hostess, has worked on notable projects such as Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Fashion, Dhobi Ghat, and the iconic TV shows Shaktimaan and Swabhimaan. She has also earned critical acclaim for roles in films like Dance of the Wind (1997), Deepa Mehta’s Earth (1998), Govind Nihalani’s Rukhmavati Ki Haveli (1991), and Kamal Haasan’s Abhay and Deham (2001).
Speaking to Screen, Gidwani slammed the industry’s “cottage‑industry” mentality, noting that unlike Hollywood’s Screen Actors Guild, India lacks a robust union to protect performers’ rights. She said, “Bollywood is not a real industry; it’s a cottage industry. It’s a fake industry; it goes by its own vague rules. There is nothing like Hollywood’s Screen Actors Guild in India. I should have been able to work for 10 years and then live off my royalties for the next ten years, not slog for 40 years. Intellectual property rights and creative rights are zero in India.”
The actress added that producers typically pay actors a one‑time fee and then retain full ownership and control of the work, denying performers any residual income when projects are reused, syndicated or licensed. She pointed out that in Hollywood, unions such as SAG‑AFTRA, the WGA and the DGA negotiate residuals for actors, writers and directors, a practice that is largely absent in Bollywood.
Beyond financial concerns, Gidwani criticized the narrow roles available to older women. “My grouse against the industry is that older women are not getting powerful roles. We don’t want to play the generic mother or maasi. We want to play good, enduring roles with sex, love, power, comedy, and action,” she said. She observed that in daily soaps, once a woman reaches her thirties, she is often cast as a grandmother or aunt, regardless of her appearance, a trend she described as “very bizarre.”
