Fatima Sana Shaikh said at the trailer launch of Hunkkaar - The Roar that patriarchy is deeply ingrained, and she put women inside that system instead of outside it. The actor tied those remarks to the kind of rooms she has faced in the film industry, where she said she was often the only woman present.
Shaikh on Hunkkaar - The Roar
“Our beginning is two steps back. Whichever room you are in, whichever position you are in, power or hierarchy, it doesn't matter. Because this is the conditioning of society. It's not that we don't deserve, we don't know what we want, we are intelligent. But society is wired in such a way that it doesn't give you a chance,” she said at the launch. She added, “It tells you, 'wait a minute, prove yourself first.'”
She will appear in Hunkkaar - The Roar as a no-nonsense police officer, a role that keeps the focus on authority while her comments describe the lack of it in everyday working rooms. The film is produced by Birla Studios and Applause Entertainment in association with Priyanka Chopra's Purple Pebble Pictures and Mangata Films Production, with Karan D Kapadia and Nitya Mehra directing.
Women in the room
“Even I have been in such rooms, where you go to a room, the producer tells you that this is a mind-blowing film for you. Then, the role is of a woman who is trying to find a voice,” Shaikh said. She also described the response that follows when she pushes back: “The irony is that when you try to say something, she won't appreciate it. She can't handle it. And then, she will make weird jokes, or she will mansplain.”
Her most direct line was blunt: “Patriarchy is not only the fault of men. There are also women in it. They are also included. It internalizes. And we are all born in the same conditioning. And we have to fight it.” That framing matters because it pushes the issue beyond individual behavior and into the habits people carry into sets, meetings and greenlight rooms.
September 25 on JioHotstar
September 25 is the date that turns the remarks into part of a release campaign, because Hunkkaar - The Roar is set to stream on JioHotstar then. Shaikh’s call to “learn to stand up for yourself and fight” gives the promotion a sharper edge than a routine trailer rollout, and it places the film inside a larger conversation about how women are pushed to prove themselves before they are heard.
Fatima Sana wants fearless cricket sits outside this story, but the parallel is familiar: confidence only becomes visible when someone is allowed to speak without being managed. Here, Shaikh is making the case that the next step is not waiting for a better room; it is challenging the script already written inside it.
