Varun Grover: Actors must be sensitised about on-screen gender-based violence

Writer Varun Grover has called for experts to monitor the violent sequences in movies, especially those featuring women. Grover, known for penning Neeraj Ghaywan-directed Masaan and Netflix series Sacred Games, said filmmakers and content creators need to take proactive steps to sensitise actors about scenes involving violence against women.
“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 normalising it,” Grover said here.
The 48-year-old scribe was speaking at a conversation session, which was part of Fursat Mei Serious Baatein event organised Delhi-based women’s right NGO, Breakthrough.
Fursat Mei Serious Baatein is a series of conversations hosted Varun Grover where he speaks to leading writers and filmmakers from the Hindi film industry to explore and initiate discussions around the negative impact of normalising violence on screen.
The guests in the series include noted filmmakers Vikramaditya Motwane, Sudip Sharma, Shonali Bose and Alankrita Shrivastava. Priyanka Kher, Head of Media at Breakthrough, said the objective of the series is to get influencers and leading people from Bollywood to start speaking about the problematic nature of violence against women.
“Pop culture is a big influencer. Sensitising actors about violence in films, particularly against women can significantly help us in shifting ideas and norms around the stereotypical depiction of women. This chat series is an attempt to encourage conversations about the importance of creating gender progressive content for audiences,” Kher added.