Shruti Haasan, the daughter of veteran actor Kamal Haasan and Sarika, in an interview, spoke about how the combination of her "surname and her b**** face" kept her protected in the film industry.
"The combination of my surname and my resting b**** face has kept a lot of people at an arm's length. Now after many years, I feel comfortable and safe enough to open up and say whatever I want," a news agency quoted Shruti as saying.
Shruti also talked about how the gender imbalance in the industry has been bridged over the last few years.
The actress recalled that when she started out, the "hero" of the film was offered the chair before the actress. "In my first few films, I was never offered a chair first, or any other seat. The guy always got the chair first. It's the good men who said, 'No, you please sit first.' I don't face that anymore," said the 34-year-old actress.
On the work front, Shruti Haasan was last seen in the short film Devi, which was directed by Priyanka Banerjee and produced by Electric Apples Entertainment for Large Short Films. The film also stars Kajol, Neha Dhupia, Neena Kulkarni, Mukta Barve, Sandhya Mhatre, Rama Joshi, Shivani Raghuvanshi, and Yashaswini Dayama.
Shruti Haasan has starred in several Tamil as well as Bollywood films. She stepped into Bollywood with the 2009 film Luck, co-starring Imran Khan. She has also been a part of films such as Welcome Back, Ramaiya Vastavaiya, Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji and D-Day among others. The actress' upcoming projects are Krack (Telugu) and the Tamil film Laabam.
