Ratna Pathak Shah calls self-censoring on OTT platforms 'scary stuff', wonders if she's in 'Islamic Iran or modern India'

Bollywood veteran actress Ratna Pathak Shah also opened up on 'regressive' TV shows in the 2000s and labelled them as 'horrible' in her latest interview.

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New Delhi: Bollywood veteran actress Ratna Pathak Shah recently opened up on 'regressive' TV shows in the 2000s and labelled them as 'horrible' in her latest interview. She also expressed that even with OTT platforms, censorship hasn't been reduced but increased in form of self-censorship. The 'Sarabhai vs. Sarabhai' actress said that sometimes she feels like she's living in Islamic Iran and not Modern India. 

Talking about the phase when Saas-bahu shows began, she told ETimes, "It was during the early 2000s that the phase of horrible saas-bahu dramas began, with all their regressive ideas--stuff that we have spent years trying to dump out of the country. If you see, in the late ’90s and early 2000s, you can see the intention to create 'parampara' in society all over again. The importance of caste was reinforced and communal relationships were looked down upon. This should have no space in the 21st century. So, how can you not be a political person? If you are making something that is consumed by millions in the country, how is that act not a political one? What choice do you have? How can you only be an artiste? I feel all art is political. The job of art is to disturb society, question things, to make people think. Of course, we are not doing that now; that's another story."

Ratna also raised questions on the kind of society we are creating and called censorship 'scary stuff happening around us'. 

"With the advent of OTT, suddenly we are being looked at very carefully, people are self-censoring in a way I didn’t think was possible. Sometimes I wonder whether I am in Islamic Iran or modern India. What kind of a society are we creating? It is really scary stuff that is happening around us; if we don't talk about it and if we don't speak up against it, we are not doing our job," she added.

Ratna Pathak Shah is a renowned actress in the film industry and has even worked in theatre and television. The actress rose to fame after her stint on the show Idhar Udhar in the 1980s.

She created a special place in the audiences' hearts when she starred as Maya Sarabhai in the iconic sitcom Sarabhai vs Sarabhai. In films, we've seen her in interesting roles in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Golmaal 3, Ek Mai Aur Ekk Tu, Khoobsurat, Kapoor and Sons and Lipstick Under My Burkha.