Radhika Apte Calls Out Hero Worship In Cinema

Cinema often feels like a playground where some voices just dominate, and Radhika Apte isn’t shy about pointing that out. The actress, who made an impression in Legend with Nandamuri Balakrishna, recently spoke about something she’s noticed for a long time: most films are written around the hero. According to her, heroines often get little to do besides look good and stand beside the male lead. Her comments have been spreading online, and people are talking.

She explained that in many films, the heroine is just there to support the hero. Scenes focus on making him look strong or cool, while women mostly add glamour. “We are just there to protect him, look pretty, and that’s it,” she said. It’s a blunt way of saying that the industry often doesn’t think about what the heroine can actually do in the story.

Radhika knows this from experience. After Legend, some of her other films didn’t click, and she even moved to London for a while. Coming back, she saw the same pattern again, movies where everything revolves around the hero, leaving the heroine in the background. It’s a feeling many actresses know, and she’s not pretending it’s fun or glamorous when it’s really limiting.