For women, by a woman

Mona

Advertisement

It was 10 years back that Dilnaz Irani saw her very first show of Vagina Monologue; seven years ago she came on board to perform what is now a world movement.

In Chandigarh on Saturday, this software engineer-turned-actor would take on the mantle of either a rape victim or sex worker or a woman who hates her vagina. She is hoping to make the audience laugh, cry and live with her a reality that we generally tend to brush under the carpet.

“The very fact that Vagina Monologue is running in its 15th year in our country is an example that we are changing as a society, but there still is a long way to go,” shares Dilnaz. Her last outing was Aligarh and she recalls the struggle Hansal Mehta had to go through to bring it all together. “But we as a team were glad that the film got a rousing response.”

Unfamiliar territory

A few web-series, two feature films and an Indo French production, Dilnaz is also glad that she took the tough call of leaving a secure, stable profession behind to follow a territory none in her family ever explored. “Acting is what makes me alive; this is my life,” she says. “Once we had a show in Dharavi and I acted the role of a girl who was facing physical abuse; soon after the show a teenage girl walked up to me, held my hand and cried, sharing, ‘This is my story, I feel better to know that I am not alone in this’.”

Well, to experience, you can book the show at Tagore Theatre at 5pm on August 12.

mona@tribunemail.com