Surveen Chawla: 'Parched' has been a liberating process

Surveen Chawla

Surveen Chawla

Surveen Chawla says since working on "Parched", she has stopped judging other women. Surveen plays a village dancer in the movie, which also stars Radhika Apte, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Sayani Gupta.

The film revolves around four women living an unwanted life in a village of north-western region of India, which still suffers from old, age-ridiculed traditions like forced child marriages and other social issues like financial difficulties, spousal and familial rape, and physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic husbands.

"'Parched' has been a liberating process. The film has taken away my judgement about one and every woman. I come from conservative background where changes are not accepted easily.

"But these women in village are so liberal in their thoughts that they talk about sex, domestic violence unabashedly. We, women living in the cities, try to cover domestic violence. But these women talk about it," Surveen said in a group interview here.

The actress said despite being set in a village, 'Parched' has set a chord with international audience because of its relatable story.

"I think we go through abusive relationships in both professional and personal space. We are exploited at workplace, in film industry and in any other industry. There's so much of gender bias around you. When this film travelled around the world everyone could relate to the story," she said.

'Parched' is set to arrive in theatres on September 23.