Fatima Sana Shaikh has raised concerns about the way women are written in Hindi comedy, arguing that female characters are often treated as secondary figures rather than being given the same opportunities for personality, humour and growth as their male counterparts.
In a conversation with Variety India, the actor said Bollywood needs more light-hearted films and comedy shows, particularly at a time when thrillers, darker stories and intense dramas appear to dominate the Hindi entertainment landscape.
According to Shaikh, the shortage is not simply about the number of comedies being made. It is also about how women are represented when they do appear in the genre.
Fatima Sana Shaikh on the lack of strong female comedy roles
Shaikh believes comedy can be entertaining without relying on women as the target of jokes.
“We do need good comedy shows. We tend to lean towards thrillers and dark films. And we’re only getting films like that. In general, lighter films are not being made these days,” she said, according to Variety India.
For the actor, the problem becomes more apparent when looking at the roles available to women. Female characters in comedies, she suggested, are frequently expected to serve the plot or support male characters rather than being allowed to develop into fully realised comic personalities.
That imbalance can make it difficult for actresses to demonstrate the same range that male performers have traditionally enjoyed in comedy.
‘Slapstick is always sexist’
Shaikh was particularly critical of slapstick humour when it depends on stereotypes involving women.
“Slapstick is always sexist. We tend to lean towards thrillers and dark films. And we are only getting films like that,” she said.
She argued that jokes involving women too often revolve around their appearance, sexuality or embarrassment. Her broader point is that comedy does not need to diminish a character to make an audience laugh.
A stronger approach, from her perspective, would allow women to be funny because of their personalities, reactions, timing and circumstances rather than simply turning them into the punchline.
Shaikh points to Vidya Balan, Juhi Chawla and Madhuri Dixit
Looking back at Hindi cinema from the 1990s and 2000s, Shaikh said actresses once had more opportunities to develop distinctly different screen personalities.
She singled out several performers as examples.
“Vidya Balan’s comic timing is amazing. Juhi Chawla is also great. Madhuri Dixit was so distinctly different from Juhi Chawla. And Preity Zinta was so distinctly different,” Shaikh said.
Her observation goes beyond comedy itself. The actresses she mentioned built recognisable identities without necessarily being restricted to one type of character or performance style.
Shaikh feels contemporary cinema can sometimes place performers into narrower categories, limiting the variety of personalities audiences get to see.
Why Bollywood needs more family-friendly comedies
The actor also recalled a period when comedy films were more commonly positioned as entertainment for the entire family.
Her own 2025 film Aap Jaisa Koi received a PG-13 classification, but Shaikh noted that many films today are made for adult audiences and receive A ratings.
That shift, she suggested, is part of a wider change in the kind of mainstream entertainment being produced.
The argument is not that darker genres should disappear. Rather, Shaikh’s comments point towards a demand for greater variety — including comedies that can appeal to broader audiences while still giving their female characters meaningful roles.
Zoya Hussain also wants to explore comedy
Shaikh’s co-star Zoya Hussain also expressed an interest in comedy, provided the material gives her a reason to connect with it.
“I am very funny in life. It’s what you read and feel emotionally curious to do,” Hussain said.
That sentiment highlights another issue surrounding comedy: an actor’s interest in the genre depends heavily on the quality of the writing.
A strong comic role can offer performers opportunities to explore timing, physicality, emotional shifts and unexpected character traits. But when the script reduces women to stereotypes or supporting functions, those possibilities become much more limited.
Better writing could change the conversation
At the centre of Shaikh’s criticism is a relatively straightforward demand: women in comedy need better-written characters.
The issue is not whether actresses are capable of carrying a comedy. Hindi cinema has a long history of performers who have demonstrated strong comic timing and memorable screen personalities.
The challenge is creating roles that give contemporary actresses comparable room to be eccentric, flawed, confident, vulnerable, ridiculous or simply funny.
If comedy is allowed to move beyond jokes built around humiliation, appearance and gender stereotypes, female characters can become part of the humour rather than merely the subject of it.
Shaikh’s comments therefore raise a larger question for Hindi filmmakers and writers: as Bollywood searches for new stories and audiences, why shouldn’t women be given the same freedom to be funny, complicated and memorable as men?
