IIFA 2025 Jaipur: “Lot of people told me that Raja should have been called Rani: Beta should have been called Beti” – Madhuri Dixit 2025 : Bollywood News

As part of its grand Silver Jubilee celebration in Jaipur, Rajasthan, IIFA Weekend & Awards commemorated 25 years of cinematic excellence and global unity by hosting a highly anticipated International Women’s Day event, ‘The Journey of Women in Cinema’. This engaging conversation featured the legendary Madhuri Dixit and the globally renowned producer Guneet Monga. The event was moderated by IIFA’s Vice President, Noreen Khan.

IIFA 2025 Jaipur: “Lot of people told me that Raja should have been called Rani: Beta should have been called Beti” – Madhuri Dixit

Guneet Monga made an interesting remark, “I would request IIFA to give awards to women who support leading women, who’ll stand up and say ‘I’ll do this film because it’s led by a woman’. We should reward producers who are pushing women characters, writers, directors.”

She further said, “The onus should not be on women. The onus should be on the industry at large.”

Madhuri Dixit, meanwhile, stated, “Women have to prove themselves time and again and time and again that we can draw an audience. Yet, you have to prove it every single time. Yes, there’s still a disparity but it’s all about pushing the envelope everytime a little bit more. It’s like baby steps. We have a long way to go still.”

Guneet Monga continued, “At the same time, there have been films like Barbie and Stree 2 (which created a storm at the box office). I mean the film is called only Stree 2! Hence, there are full possibilities of (breaking the box office).”

Madhuri Dixit exulted, “Yes that happens. When I worked in Raja (1995), a lot of people said, ‘It should have been called Rani’! They also remarked, ‘Beta (1992) should have been called Beti’. But all these are words. When will the change actually happen? It did happen at one point in my life but will it happen regularly? I don’t know.”

Also Read: IIFA 2025 Jaipur: Madhuri Dixit, Guneet Monga EXPOSE shocking gender bias: “Earlier, only women on the set were heroines, hairdressers: Everybody tries to make their low budget film with female DOPs, when they have no money”