'Gender labels are used because it's not level playing field yet': Ruchi Narain

of an artiste should t define art, says writer-director Ruchi Narain, who believes imbalance in opportunities between men and women is reason why labels exist. Ruchi is best kwn for writing screenplays of films "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi" and "Calcutta Mail" and has directed movies "Kal: Yesterday and Tomorrow" and animation feature "Hanuman Da Damdaar".

"For any artiste creating any kind of work, lens should be of a creator, regardless of . Because re have been fewer women, current scenario tends to be more of men. But as more women come in, it will automatically change," she told PTI in an interview on sidelines of Netflix roundtable for Women's Day.

" balance is t very equal. Hopefully, in next 20 years or less, we won’t need to put se labels on anything. Right w, it is done because it is t a level playing field. That's a fact," she ded.

director's latest work is Netflix's "Guilty", starring Kiara vani. film, co-written by Atika Chohan, has dialogues by Kanika Dhillon. An incisive look at post #MeToo era, it touches upon various topics such as patriarchy, inherent biases and class divide through a campus-set rape allegation story. Ruchi said she has sensitively handled all characters in movie, regardless of .

"In my film, re is an allegation of sexual assault. I can portray point of view of accuser and accused. You have to understand complexities of everyone, t just boy and girl. You need to stay true to character and ir flaws and treat each of m as a person and t as a man or woman. It is an older style of storytelling, which makes things more black and white and that gets segregated into male and female. If you deal into grey, that is a newer way of filmmaking, n all se things will start to lose. categorisation and labels, y will all become complex people," she said.

roundtable discussion, titled ' Female Lens', was also attended by writer Anvita Dutt Guptan, filmmaker Sooni Taraporevala, casting director Seher Latif among ors.