Firstpost at JLF | 'Stolen' actress Mia Maelzer: 'Films in which women have more agency have increased…'

Mia Maelzer is an award-winning actor based in India. She is best known for her leading performance in The Field, a short film by Sandhya Suri. Recently, she has  won a lot of accolades for her performance in Stolen, a bone-chilling thriller that became one of the most critically praised films of recent times.  She is highly regarded for her work in international and independent cinema, often playing powerful, gritty lead roles

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost at the Jaipur Literature Festival, the actress spoke about the evolution of cinema and content, how women’s roles have changed over the years, and the rise of the streaming platforms.

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Edited excerpts from the interview:

How has the portrayal of women in cinema changed post Stolen that you have done? And how do you select your roles?

My next two projects are Indo- American collaborations. The one which is already out is called Nadi. Nandita Das is also plays a part in the film. We are hoping to wrap it and send it to different festivals. There’s another Indo-American project that I am doing, which is based on a famous artist tribe. There is one feature film that I am doing, which is a sci-fi. And then there is an international project and they have started talking with me about it. I have not signed it yet. Actually I take a lot of time to say ‘yes’.

How has women’s roles changed in cinema over a period of time?

The number of films in which women have more agency has increased. But it was not rare for the kind of cinema I grew up on. The class agency is definitely wider. Some of us are really fighting hard to change that and bring that into the writing. It’s a long process. The previous actresses also fought for us to be here.

Has OTT also changed things for you as an actor and the content of cinema overall?

I’m not the kind of person to celebrate OTT screening much because I completely grew up on films which happens to be a large community viewing experience. I’m not a big fan of watching everything online. But as a profession, it gave us a lot more space. But it seems to have shrunk because now OTT has been captured by people who have big money. I have a certain problem with that word because OTT is not only about people from Versova or Juhu. I do a lot of multi language cinema, I work in south films and the proper commercial industry of Bengal, and Hindi films as well.

How much hurdles did you face when you decided you want to become an actor?

Family wouldn’t be considered a resistance because they were worried about me making into Hindi cinema, kind of a thing. They were apprehensive about it, but were not very keen to see me become an actor because I was always perceived to become a director. They thought I would struggle a lot, which I did. This is why I ended up learning 12 languages to work in 12 different language films. Some of my stories are very painful because in most of the cases, I have cleared the auditions till the last round and was dropped off because I didn’t have a certain background to fight in the roles that I already cracked.

The easy way to tell me  was that I didn’t fit in because of my looks.  I once gave a statement on my social media profile that- ‘Aap heroine dekhte nahin ho aap heroine hote ho’ (you don’t need to look like a heroine, you need to be an heroine). Your actions make you a hero. It made me feel very vulnerable when I was fighting in the industry without a proper acting degree, which made me move to New Delhi and study in The National School of Drama (NSD). And ever since then I have mostly played the lead roles.

WATCH Mia Maelzer in the trailer of ‘Stolen’ below: