I am not a 'woman' director when I'm directing: Nandita Das

Activist and actor Nandita Das noted for voicing women's issues feels that females are still marginalised and face stereotypes in their daily lives.

While directing the Hindi political thriller 'Firaaq' in 2008, the actor said she had encountered the "typical mindset" which a woman faces when she "tries to break the barriers."

"When I directed Firaaq, many asked me how is it to be a woman director. But when you direct you do not think whether you are a woman or not," said the actor who was here recently to participate in a discussion on Women's leadership organised by NGO Oxfam India.

"The fact that I am a woman, comes with idea that there is a different way I look at things. For example if the film is on violence, a woman's gaze is different than what a man looks at it," the 44-year-old actress told PTI.

For Das, "it is important that different taste and different perspective must be brought in."
"A lot of my feminist friends had said that they were surprised that I did a film on a subject which was not women oriented. But as a woman, we get impacted by different issues, and we react differently to different issues," she said.

"When I did Firaaq, there were also instances where people told me that they could make out that a woman had directed the film" she added.