Bollywood is a huge industry across the world making hundreds of crores every year with some actors and actresses raking in big moolah. It has come a long way from the kind of cinema that it used to produce and the way it used to treat its actors and actresses. But there still remains a great divide in the way the silver screen treats its female folk. Actresses are treated differently, and are primarily known for their looks, rather than their performances.

Technically, the more mature an actor, the better his performance. But Bollywood believes in the mantra of putting actors in the limelight, while the actresses have to be happy with whatever part they are being offered. Even the silver screen is not spared by the patriarchal mentality prevalent in India. While it is believed that 'men look better with age,' women supposedly regress in their looks once they touch 30.

The pressure to look good all the time

The "actress needs to look terrific and shake a leg or two, and the actor just needs to be there in the movie" approach needs to change. We, as the audience, can do better than looking at SRK's eight pack abs in Happy New Year and instead appreciate an actress, or even an actor for that matter, for their acting.

Unlike actors, actresses face a lot of pressure to look good all the time. The paparazzi doesn't help one bit and is always running after them, looking for candid captures and photographs without make up. And then, if some of them give in to the pressure to look perfect and go under the knife, the media again leaves no stone unturned to create a furore and get mileage out of it.