Actress Konkona Sen Sharma, gearing up for her next film Metro In Dino directed by Anurag Basu, recently opened up about the significant challenges of balancing professional life with personal responsibilities in the film industry. She also shared her thoughts on the necessary systemic changes for working parents.
During an interview, Konkona articulated a prevalent issue, stating, “I genuinely want to say that in today’s day and age, there is a certain motherhood penalty in any industry, which happens. It’s called the fatherhood premium and the motherhood penalty. Because what happens is that fathers, as they have children and they become more and more senior, they earn more and more. But for women with every child, there is a financial setback because you’re not able to kind of participate in the way society expects you to or for that matter what the office work demands.”
She further elaborated on the broader implications of this disparity, suggesting it discourages women from having children. “Now what’s going to happen ultimately is that women are not incentivized to have children at all because it’s becoming more and more difficult. You know, to participate in the work life, and to be a good mother at the same time is becoming more and more difficult. So, I feel that this is something that eventually the governments will have to kind of change policies for working mothers. Otherwise it’s not going to happen.”
Konkona Sen Sharma and Ranvir Shorey, who married in 2010 and separated five years later, finalized their divorce in 2020. They share a son, Haroon, and continue to co-parent him.
Konkona’s upcoming film, Metro In Dino, is a multi-starrer featuring Aditya Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan, Ali Fazal, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Pankaj Tripathi, Neena Gupta, and Anupam Kher. The movie is scheduled for release on July 4.
